Because most states in 2012 are allocated proportionally rather than winner-take-all, it’s really difficult to predict how the delegates would be awarded. Romney’s opponents will win delegates in states that he wins and he’ll get delegates in the states that he loses. But just for the sake of this exercise, if Romney were to win all of the delegates in all of the states that I identified above as solid or lean states, it would only get him to 1,008 delegates, according to the CNN calculator -- still short of the required 1,144.

What happens then is unclear, because it would be uncharted territory in the modern era. In theory, all of the candidates can take their delegates to the convention and fight it out there. However, its also possible that one of the other candidates would cut a deal with Romney to release their delegates before then. Either way, such a scenario does not seem out of the question.

I cannot imagine Santorum or Gingrich being willing to cut a deal with Romney - perhaps this is where Ron Paul's delegate leverage might come into play...