Will the Republiban stay with Mittens or bring in the brokers?

[Ken Burch]

Not a good sign for the 'pugs when they're sliding in the polls heading into Tampa. Will they stay with the one who bought 'em or try somebody else?

6 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	They'll stay with Mittens
	5 (83%)
	They'll push Mittens out and have a brokered convention
	1 (17%)
	Other
	0 (0%)
	Meh
	0 (0%)
	No opinion
	0 (0%)
	Wait...doesn't Mitt LIKE brokers?
	0 (0%)
	Are the Olympics over yet?
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[jberryhill]

1. They have to stick with Romney

Speculation that they will do anything other than nominate Romney reminds me of:

Will the selection of Sarah Palin draw masses of Hillary supporters? (answer: no, most Hillary supporters are Hillary supporters because she advocates for policies they support, and are not fixated on the genitalia of a politician)

Will the McCain campaign dump Palin as having turned out to be a liability? (answer: no, see e.g. how well dumping Eagleton worked out)

This line of thought is driven by the generally known and palpable likelihood that Romney can't win this election. Of course, if Romney cannot win, then, yes, "dump Romney" is an essential element of any strategy that would produce a win. However, the next problem is "if not Romney, who?" And if you cannot come up with a more likely winner in answer to that question, then the entire question of "dump Romney" is irrelevant to the larger problem.

That larger problem is that we know that the entire GOP primary field could not produce a win against Obama. Out of that field, the one with the best chance was Romney. Conservatives don't like that, but all of their candidates would only produce a loss by a greater probable likelihood.

If you are going to propose that their best move is "dump Romney", you have to answer "dump Romney for whom?" All of the well known candidates are no better and in most instances worse, and there is no way you are going to launch a relative unknown in the short span of time between the convention and the election. It is a sprint finish from that point.

This is why the VP pick is the question of the day. It is Romney's only obvious chance to attempt to improve his position. And the necessary considerations are Ohio, Florida, and to a lesser extent Pennsylvania, UNLESS there is a VP pick who could actually deliver Pennsylvania.

If Romney were to be dumped, though, I hope it would be in favor of a rip-roaring teabagger, so that said teabagger could be soundly thrashed in the election, and those people would just sit down, shut up, and let the adults govern.

[nenagh]

3. Jon Huntsman would have been an attractive candidate, but not to the rabid Repub's...

It's as if the very success of the propaganda orchestrated by Fox News/right wing talkers..has overbalanced the party into a zone of crazy on the one hand.. vs the Über wealthy Romney/Bain/Corporation/banker faction .to nearly become a farce...

I think you are right...who would there be to take over from Romney?

[jberryhill]

4. They've really painted themselves into a corner

[Ken Burch]

6. I'm not proposing that they dump Romney...just pondering the question of whether they might

As I see it, it might come down to the question of damage control...the question of how badly the nominee can do in the fall without doing major harm to the rest of the slate.

At this point, I think what they have to work out is not so much the question of whether Romney can win if he's nominated(that's iffy at best, and I think they get that)but whether they can nominate him and still hold the House(and at least hold their current ground in the Senate...a GOP takeover of the Senate may be getting out of reach now with so many teabaggers getting Senate noms).

In 1996, for example, they probably knew going into that convention that Dole was a doomed in November, but that he would probably at least run well enough to preserve their grip on Congress, whereas dumping him would at least put the House in serious danger. They will have to guess, now as to whether Romney or somebody else will drag the party deepest into the depths at the Congressional and Senatorial level. If they don't even have the votes to get symbolic repeals of the ACA passed over and over again, they'll be in a bad way.

[cali]

7. They won't and they can't.

it amazes me that people who follow politics closely could actually believe anything like this will happen.

And it amazes me that people don't understand that Romney can win this. Not saying he will. Certainly hope that he won't, but it's absolutely possible and not even unlikely.

[Ken Burch]

8. Still, it's in our party's interest

to have people thinking there's a real possibility that Mittens could be dumped in Tampa.

Of course Romney could still buy the damn thing in the fall...I'm perfectly aware of that and so is everybody else...but he's losing ground quickly at the moment and it will be harder and harder for the guy if he doesn't get much of a bounce out of his convention and then Obama gets a decent bounce out of ours.

[Ken Burch]

10. Toomey, perhaps?

he took the Senate seat just two years ago and is both right-wing and (thus far)flying below the radar. This would give Mittens the element of surprise...plus impeachment insurance a la' Agnew, since Mittens could calculate that, say, a post-2014 Democratic Congress wouldn't risk trying to force him out of office to put an unknown reactionary into the White House.

[jberryhill]

11. Toomey, Ridge, Casey... they have a few

Santorum couldn't deliver Pennsylvania if he had a Pennsylvania shaped flatbed truck.

[Ken Burch]

12. If you had a flatbed truck covered with Santorum...

...you'd want to break out the pressure washer-AND the hazmat suits...

[MADem]

2. They are already looking at 2016 I think. nt

[jberryhill]

5. As they should

Conservatives don't like Romney, and if Romney wins, then he would be the probable 2016 candidate. This freezes them out of relevance until 2020.

[Javaman]

9. The money guys will pay off the "brokers"

too much is invested in lost mittens at this point and throwing him over the side will basically guarantee a landside for Obama.

They are in for the "going down in a blaze of glory" tactic.

[RZM]

13. Why would they do that?

So they could buck their primary voters and pick an even bigger loser who has raised no money and has no campaign staff?

They're stuck with Mitt.