McCain's unity problem

It's all Unity, all the time this week in the Granite State. Well, bah humbug to all that.

Chuck Todd has this right, we think: the Obama-Clinton get-together is more of a ratification of what's already happening on the ground among voters, rather than any sort of transformative, "unifying" event. There is little sign in polls around the nation that Clinton voters are defecting to McCain in large numbers. And if last week's ARG and Rasmussen surveys are any indication, Clinton voters are staying with Obama as well. I don't know if Granite State pro-choice activists will be linking arms and singing "Kumbaya" tomorrow, but all that seems like very, very inside baseball at this point.

Here's another unity question, albeit without the dramatic appeal: How is McCain doing in unifying Mitt Romney voters behind his candidacy?

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• McCain won the New Hampshire primary, but Romney trounced him among "very conservative" voters. McCain had 18 percent support in this group, according to exit polls.
• In the last UNH poll (now several weeks old), McCain only had the support of 78 percent of New Hampshire conservatives. Obama had 12 percent of these voters. Another 10 percent were undecided or supporting another candidate. This poll, taken in late April, occurred several weeks after the GOP race was over.

This will be one metric to watch in the next UNH poll. Is it the case that for every "McBama" voter, there is another "Romney conservative" staring glumly at his beer, wishing that he was as fired up and ready to go as his neighbor with the Obama sign in his yard?

Dante Scala teaches American politics at the University of New Hampshire and blogs at Graniteprof.