All Odds Aside, GOP Girding for A Floor Fight..NYTimes

[Stuart G]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/us/politics/republicans-brace-for-possible-open-convention.html
Daniel Borris for theNew York Times


CHICAGO — For the first time in a generation, Republicans are preparing for the possibility that their presidential nomination could be decided at their national convention rather than on the campaign trail, a prospect that would upend one of the rituals of modern politics.


The race remains Mitt Romney’s to lose, and if he continues to accumulate delegates at a steady clip starting with contests in Puerto Rico on Sunday and Illinois on Tuesday, he can still amass the 1,144 necessary to secure the nomination before the last primary, in Utah on June 26.

But as he struggles to win the hearts of conservative voters and hold off a challenge from Rick Santorum, party leaders, activists and the campaigns are for the first time taking seriously the possibility that neither he nor anyone else will get to that total.

In that case, the nomination would be decided by the more than 2,200 delegates — from obscure local officials and activists to national figures — who will attend the party’s convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August.

[Warpy]

1. This year will produce a candidate

but it will also produce seething resentment in one group or another. And since we know the entire party lives on resentment and acts out of spite, 2016 is going to be the year to watch. Unless some media star with a choirboy past appears to "lead" them, the fight in 2016 is likely to be the one to send that party the way of the Federalist Party and then the Whigs.

They will, of course, present Jebbie as the party savior, but I don't think much of the party is going to buy that. His big brother did them too much damage by being so absolutely rotten at the job that the country elected a black guy to succeed him. While they have short memories in that party, their memories aren't quite that short.

We will be living in some very interesting times, no matter what else happens. I will be clinging to what's left of life just to try to live long enough to see not only the Reagan and Nixon coalitions break down, but that party reduced to a bunch of state parties of spiteful religious haters.

[wandy]

2. But to some Bush was the next Reagon. Brokered convention = Jeb Bush.

GWB struck the Muslem infidel.
GWB brought down inflation!
GWB was a man you'de like to have a beer with.
Jeb; only Jeb can save us.
Loard have mercy on our soles.