Posted on 02/01/2012 5:08:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I will start this out by saying that I am usually wrong when I make political predictions (how did that Hillary Clinton-Rudy Giuliani face-off turn out in 2008?). But Ive been thinking about this for a while, and in the off chance that I happen to be right, I just want it on the record. So here goes
Mitt Romney will not be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Neither will Newt Gingrich. And certainly not Ron Paul or Rick Santorum. No, the Republican candidate for president will be someone who isnt even a candidate for president right now. It will be someone who will swoop in and snatch the nomination away, much to the delight of Republican voters who wont much like the person who emerges with the most delegates from the primaries.
There are two ways this could go down -- one of the candidates, likely Romney, will have enough delegates to clinch the nomination by April or May. Thats plenty of time before the convention in late August for Republican leaders and their flock to determine that nobody really likes Romney and there is no possible way that he can beat President Obama. They will go looking for someone else.
Or that someone else, who is likely already working behind the scenes, will start talking publicly about Romneys unelectability, whipping Republican voters into such a frenzy that reluctant party leaders will be forced to go along and ask delegates to change their allegiance.
Remember, candidates used to be picked at conventions. The current system of the convention being a coronation for an already-chosen candidate is a relatively new phenomenon. This would be a throwback to days gone by.
Who might that someone be? Thats the hard part. It has to be someone big. It cant be Sen. Joe Nobody. It has to be someone known to voters, not someone who needs to introduce themselves to the nation for the first time. That doesnt leave many options.
The logical choice is Sarah Palin. She might already be laying the groundwork for such an operation. After she announced in the fall that she was not running, she pretty much disappeared. But now Palin is slowly coming back, making television appearances and talking about the election. In a telling strategy, she has not endorsed anyone. She has expressed some support for Gingrich but has been critical of Romney. Expect that to continue as he piles up delegates.
I dont think Palin could beat Obama, either, but she has a better chance than Romney. If anything she might excite and motivate Republicans to at least get and out vote and perhaps stop Democrats from taking back the House. Romney excites no one. Palin still has plenty of devoted followers, and she is just the type to go against the GOP establishment and attempt to pull this off.
Giuliani is another possibility. He is obviously known to everyone and is reasonably well-liked. Unfortunately, his big issue is terrorism and national security, and with Osama bin Laden dead and al-Qaeda severely weakened, Giuliani has lost his biggest selling point.
Jeb Bush? He might be a stronger candidate than Romney but I dont think anyone is clamoring for a third Bush in the White House.
With the economy still in shambles, New York City Mayor and mega-billionaire Michael Bloomberg is another possibility. But would Republicans trust a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, virulently anti-gun New Yorker who changes parties as often as he buys a new Bentley (he is now an independent after spending his life as a Democrat but switching to Republican for his three runs for mayor)?
There are other options out there that might emerge in the coming months, but whoever ends up being the Republican nominee, it will not be someone who is running right now. You heard it here first. Unless I am wrong, which is a definite possibility.
Ain’t happenin’.
Sheer fantasy.
>> There are other options out there that might emerge in the coming months, but whoever ends up being the Republican nominee, it will not be someone who is running right now. <<
What a f****** idiot. No, there’s no-one going to swoop in and save us from Romney... because the election has already started! You have to get on ballots, and that costs time and money, and the process is already completed for many states. Don’t professional writers even bother to check out the laws before speculating on something like this?
If frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their asses.
Not the Donald??
I’m all for it if it’s Palin.
But a draft or brokered convention would more likely lead to someone like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.
I’m betting on the lottery too. The odds are about equal.
I’m all for it if it’s Palin.
But a draft or brokered convention would more likely lead to someone like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.
I still think Sarah Palin will be riding in to save our bacon and fry it up in a pan
This is something that must be earned, not stolen.
Newt is trying to EARN America's respect.
Who is your pretender that she might slip in and steal it?
Mayor, the Christian and American hating, Bloomers? Right. That’s the ticket! He can give a speech from the Victory Mosque at ground zero. But he’ll need to ban the Chrisitans from coming.
Agreed. Sheer fantasy.
Newt/’Cuda 2012!!!!!!!!!! Sarah Keynote February 11 !!
No. It would piss off Republicans more than anything else to have a hard-won campaign, to only sweep it under the rug.
Unless Mitt is pulled out by May, that is who the GOP is going to run with, for better or worse.
I do not believe it will ever happen. We now have the only candidates we are going to have.
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Trump
hes got an announcement tomorrow about the POTUS race
Reading this is like watching much of the national news on TV; pure speculation based on opinion and fantasy.
That is the way nominations were fought out for decades, so primary coronations be damned.
I won't vote for Bloomberg for anything, even if Obama is the other candidate.
agree
better a Mormon than a Muzzie
Then it's clinched, right?
How does one swoop in and take away a clinched nomination? You only go to a brokered convention if nobody wins a majority by the time of the convention, right? Unless the winner of the primaries decides to drop out before the convention, I guess.
-PJ
After the first ballot, a convention can make SpongeBob Squarepants the nominee.
Mitt and the White Horse Prophecy
The guy doesn’t say how he thinks Newt will fall. Newt is red hot right now. He won’t just wither away.
I dunno. If the Republicans are stupid enough to nominate their own Obamacare candidate, they are stupid enough to nominate Bloomburg.
First form a circle......
Unless someone changes the rules, which would signal open warfare, delegates are required to cast their vote for the designated candidate on the first ballot.
That would be it. Ballgame.
It is mathematically possible that Mitt and Newt could be so close in delegates that the balance of power would be held by Santorum and Paul. In that case we would have a brokered convention, as the first ballot would not yield a majority.
I’m afraid women do not like Sarah Palin, so she is unelectable.
Ridiculous. Romney is winning, fair and square.
About the only person he mentions as a possibility whom I could support is Sarah Palin.
But I simply cannot imagine that a brokered convention of Republican hacks would choose her.
I think the only way she could enter the race is with a new Second Party supported by the Tea Party, assuming that the GOP convention will probably come up with the worst possible candidate.
Maybe I’m wrong, but the GOP seems to be getting more and more and more resolute about committing suicide, if it possibly can.
I do think it’s true that almost anything could happen this time around, because the Republican hacks are being exceptionally stupid this time—even worse than they have in almost every election over the past several decades—and the base simply will not put up with it again. Not with our country on the edge of destruction.
Well, we’ll see. Meantime, keep praying for a good outcome.
Romney is acting like a girl who was just named homecoming queen. (looks like one too)
Which means he’s a typical presstitute.
At a brokered convention, Palin would come in just after Joe Lieberman with the rank and file and the elites of the party. The Powers That Be have been ripping her for four years, they aren’t going to pick her now.
So what? After what our system puts people through...he should gloat. And I am no Romney fan.
Why don’t we just put them into the Thunderdome and be done with it.
Funny you should mention that. John McCain wanted Joe as his running mate in 2008 and had to be talked out of it by his staff. Then Bill Kristol talked up Sarah Palin.
as long as we are all prognosticating?
Do I dare mention no election this coming November 6th.
Hey, peeps have muttered about it for several presidents back, so maybe this will be the one where their worst fears come true.
I am not counting on it, but wouldn’t be surprised, the way things are going.

She's not running!
We’re of like minds. that’s what made me think of him.
THEY allowed themselves to be put in “the thunderdome.” and Romney set the tone. One would think that a grown man running for POTUS would have enough dignity not to cry to the American people that he didn’t get a call from his opponent to congratulate him. After the slanderous filthy ad campaign in Florida used by Romney against Gingrich, he didn’t deserve a call. But then again this is how liberals operate.
Nope.
I would settle for Ryan.
Not gonna happen... the estabs have a plan to not get the indies too wound up against them so they have a chance to hold onto the House and maybe eke out a majority in the Senate.
They`ve written off victory in the Presidential “race,” thus Romney.
Anyone who thinks a liberal New Yawka is going to swoop in and delight conservatives for the nomination has lost their ever loving mind.
Sarah Palin might be able to pull it off, but that would be assuming that Santorum or Paul could grab enough delegates and Newt win enough states to deny Romney the delegates needed to win outright.
That is a very big ‘IF’.
I don’t think it’s going to happen.
from my reading in some states the delegates are not forced to vote for the candidate they ‘belong to’, actually some delegates will be chosen at a later date at state conventions! A few states anyway.
And after the first ballot they can do anything
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