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Prediction: Someone Else will Swoop in, Nab GOP Nomination (Guess who he means?)
Opposing Views ^ | February 1, 2012 | Mark Berman

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 I’ve 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 isn’t 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 won’t 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. That’s 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 Romney’s 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? That’s the hard part. It has to be someone big. It can’t 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 doesn’t 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 don’t 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 don’t 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.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; State and Local
KEYWORDS: delusion; gingrich; giuliani; koolaid; newt; palin; romney
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To: dangus
Does the term, “Brokered Convention” have any meaning to you?

That is the way nominations were fought out for decades, so primary coronations be damned.

21 posted on 02/01/2012 5:25:14 PM PST by Sea Parrot (Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss. Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I can imagine, with great difficulty, holding my nose and voting for Romney in the general.

I won't vote for Bloomberg for anything, even if Obama is the other candidate.

22 posted on 02/01/2012 5:25:53 PM PST by Campion ("It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins." -- Franklin)
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To: Campion
holding my nose and voting for Romney in the general.

agree

better a Mormon than a Muzzie

23 posted on 02/01/2012 5:29:12 PM PST by nascarnation (DEFEAT BARAQ 2012 DEPORT BARAQ 2013)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...one of the candidates, likely Romney, will have enough delegates to clinch the nomination by April or May.

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

24 posted on 02/01/2012 5:30:33 PM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you can vote for President, then your children can run for President.)
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To: dangus

After the first ballot, a convention can make SpongeBob Squarepants the nominee.


25 posted on 02/01/2012 5:42:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You can't invade the US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.~Admiral Yamamoto)
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To: nascarnation
We must have someone who is willing to undo what Obama has already done. I can't picture Romney doing that. Newt might. Whatever happens we need a person who will undo the damage Obama has already done, not just someone who will coast over the top of it and cause us to get the fallout when the roosters come home to roost from all of Obama's horrible America destroying decisions. If The USA is to be saved we MUST have someone dedicated to undoing Obama and also capable of taking us forward.
26 posted on 02/01/2012 5:43:16 PM PST by Bellflower (The LORD is Holy, separated from all sin, perfect, righteous, high and lifted up.)
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To: nascarnation
Might be wrong there...but read this and comment...
Mitt and the White Horse Prophecy

27 posted on 02/01/2012 5:48:10 PM PST by RoosterRedux (Newt: "Why vote for the guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama?")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The guy doesn’t say how he thinks Newt will fall. Newt is red hot right now. He won’t just wither away.


28 posted on 02/01/2012 5:51:46 PM PST by reasonisfaith (Or, more accurately---reason serves faith. See W.L. Craig, and many others.)
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To: Utmost Certainty
Sheer fantasy. 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......
29 posted on 02/01/2012 5:53:25 PM PST by mbarker12474 (If thine enemy offend thee, give his childe a drum.)
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To: mbarker12474
Sheer fantasy.

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......

30 posted on 02/01/2012 5:55:02 PM PST by mbarker12474 (If thine enemy offend thee, give his childe a drum.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
one of the candidates, likely Romney, will have enough delegates to clinch the nomination by April or May. That’s 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,

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.

31 posted on 02/01/2012 5:55:41 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m afraid women do not like Sarah Palin, so she is unelectable.


32 posted on 02/01/2012 6:01:45 PM PST by expat2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Berman must be Tommy Chong in disguise.
33 posted on 02/01/2012 6:05:32 PM PST by X-spurt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ridiculous. Romney is winning, fair and square.


34 posted on 02/01/2012 6:20:07 PM PST by Hildy ("When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - SocratesH)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

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.


35 posted on 02/01/2012 6:20:38 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Hildy

Romney is acting like a girl who was just named homecoming queen. (looks like one too)


36 posted on 02/01/2012 6:25:27 PM PST by Toespi
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To: I see my hands

Which means he’s a typical presstitute.


37 posted on 02/01/2012 6:26:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You can't invade the US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.~Admiral Yamamoto)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

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.


38 posted on 02/01/2012 6:30:32 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: Toespi

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.


39 posted on 02/01/2012 6:30:58 PM PST by Hildy ("When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - SocratesH)
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To: Tanniker Smith

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.


40 posted on 02/01/2012 6:36:17 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You can't invade the US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.~Admiral Yamamoto)
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