[Al B.]

Palin’s route to the Republican nomination is easy to see given the Republican Convention’s “winner takes all” rule that gives the candidate with the most votes during the primary election all of the delegates from that state. Since Palin currently has the most Republican support (and undoubtedly the most enthusiastic), she is very likely to sweep enough state primaries to come to the national convention with a majority of the pledged delegates.

Articles I've seen this week indicate the RNC is going to change the rules to emphasize far more proportion delegate selection in 2012. This makes the route that much tougher for Palin. It will make for more of an endurance contest and increase the impact of establishment backing (i.e. -- money).

I don't think it will work, though. If she runs, she'll have a ground army that will be unreal.

[Brices Crossroads]

Each state Central committee makes that call isn’t that right? They might be able to do it in some but not others. When some of the Candidates she has backed win governorships and Senate seats, she is going to be able to prevent them from jiggering the rules. I think it is pretty hard for a National Party to do this when they don’t have a President. Palin has not taken any cheap shots at Steele and he has shown himself pretty deferential to the Tea Party.

The GOP Establishment knows that is it cheats and the cheating deprives her of the nomination, it will adversely affect turnout and might even generate a third Party which probably means 4 more years of O. Like you , I don’t see them getting away with it. Heck. Mitt Romney couldn’t even save Bennett’s bacon in Utah at the state convention! Such a massive rule change would require a lot more organization and support than they have. And it could bite them in states where Palin does not win, but would get delegates under proportional representation rules.