Any rule change would require the majority of delegates to approve. This is one of the reasons that I want Cruz to remain in the hunt for the nomination. It comes down to this, if both Trump and Cruz work to keep rule 40 in place for the first and any subsequent vote, the GOPe can not field a candidate and will be forced to choose between the two.
I'll make a guess here. If do-whatever-it-takes Ted enables the shenanigans, there will be over a million Trump supporters in Cleveland.
Cruz would have to win 708 of the remaining 789 delegates to attain 1,237.
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The interest/concern now is what happens to the delegates already held by the other also-rans: Rubio, Kasich, JBush, Carson, Fiorina, Huckabee.
By Rule 40, they are all ineligible to be on the convention ballot. That leaves only Trump and Cruz eligible.
So, do the delegates committed to the also-rans sit on their hands or are they free to vote for either of the 2 eligibles?
If they sit on their hands, does that reduce the actual number required for nomination (down from the 1237)?
The RNC seems to have created a major fiasco.
Cruz would gladly cave on 40 if he thought it would enable his career path. I actually expect it.
AMERICA FOR SALE?
Let me see if I have this right!
Early American elections have been about competing ideas on how best to guide the country toward the Founders Constitutionally articulated goals and principles . Sadly, more recent electoral contests have become battles between those who wish to more closely adhere to those early goals and those advancing increasingly alien systems of government, some of which seek the outright abandonment of the Founders’ vision.
Both the early and more recent elections have always been about persuading enough fellow citizens to support a candidate’s or party’s position. It’s why there’re called “elections”.
The modern electronic media driven campaigns have raised the cost of getting out the competing messages to a level where only those who have or have access to large sums need apply. And, although we began as a “republic” (the rule of law, i.e., the Constitution), elections are the unavoidable and potentially troublesome democratic aspect of the process for which no one wishing to maintain the remaining freedoms we still enjoy has found a substitute.
With the recent controversy involving “delegate” selection by local and state party elites comes a new and rather frightening development.
Probably due to Trump having upset the “established order”, it seems that campaigns are no longer buying persuasive media to get the word out to the general election voters, THEY’RE BUYING DELEGATES in an effort to stack the deck at the nominating conventions. Since they only have to persuade a few thousand citizens as opposed to trying to reach millions in the general population later, it’s cheaper and they can effectively dictate and limit the choices the general voters will have on election day!
Question: Can someone explain why this isn’t the same thing as bribing members of a jury to secure a desired verdict?
But I’m far less troubled by some miscreant bribing jurors than I am by what’s going on right now as you read this. While the verdict in a rigged jury situation hurts or damages the entity or entities who were the victims of the tampering, the eventual victim of what can only be called delegate tampering is the entire nation and, if an agent of one of those alien systems is the beneficiary of the tampering, will be the very futures of your children and grandchildren!
Have we really become the philosophical eunuchs the Founders feared? Have we really sunk this low?
Please tell me where I’ve got this wrong. I really DO want to be wrong on this one!
D.Bachert 4/14/2016
I doubt they will try to change it ahead of time. They may very well try it at the start of the convention, though.
I think this is where it really matters that the local party hacks have been blocking loyal Trump delegates from being chosen. The “establishment” is not just in D.C., it is EVERYBODY that are in key positions at the local levels of the GOP. By putting THEIR people (not Cruz people) in Trump’s delegations, they can get rule changes passed that are inimical to Trump and Cruz — like changing 40(b) to allow “anyone who has won any delegates”.