I think after the first vote when no one gets a majority... all the different delegates are free to vote for whoever they wish in the 2nd vote..
but since all the delegates are strong supporters of their particular candidate ... a second vote will in most cases just result in the same outcome with no one getting a majority.
So... what happens then is the wheeling and dealing. So and so (maybe someone like Paul) goes into a back room and agrees to have his supporters vote for candidate X in return for _____ and this back room dealing goes on until they have assembled a majority, at which point each candidate goes and tells their delegates they have made and deal and they should now support candidate X in the next vote.
But candidate X could be ANYONE.
of course, RonPaul’s delegates do not have to listen to him on who to support.
And ronPaul is the least likely to be involved in any dealmaking. If they wanna get the support of Newt’s delegates, they don’t even have to approach NEWT. They can approach the delegates directly.
No, it won’t go to 49 ballots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1852_Democratic_National_Convention