Is a "brokered" Republican convention possible ?

[jaysunb]

Romney is still the "presumed" nominee, but..
Is it possible that with all the apparent weakness and failure of Romney's campaign thus far, could the big wigs and fringe base dump him at the altar ?
This was quite possibly a "throwaway" election any way, so what would stop or energize more than anything the dumping of Romney at the convention ?

Flame away.

[Hoyt]

1. I know conventional wisdom is against that, but I wouldn't count it out.

[CK_John]

2. I've always believed that Mitt was a straw candidate for former Gov of NY.

George Pataki will step in and play the adult. Liberal on social issues and conservative on the money end. Green creds and bland.

[Nye Bevan]

3. Romney has enough delegates to be guaranteed the nomination.

So no.

[HeiressofBickworth]

4. I agree that it is possible Romney doesn't actually get the nomination

But I've thought it would be Jeb Bush who would emerge as their "white knight" savior. The advantage to us to have Romney as the nominee is all of the gaffs, revelations of his self-perceived superiority and personal character failures which can be used against him in the general election campaign. It would give Dems a harder time to dig into and reveal the total failures of a candidate's position when we haven't heard anything from that candidate for months now. It will be interesting to watch the Republican convention, something I've never been able to stomach before.

[wandy]

5. I am in total agreement. A brokered convention may have been the plan all along....

Think about it. Jeb Bush wasn't riped up, defamed, humbled, vetted/outed in the replublican clown car demolition derby sometimes called the republican primaries.
Jeb Bush hasn't taken the sever amount of bad press as the others.
Surly Jeb Bush will emerge as the great champion and rally the entire teaparty party behind him.
This could have been the plan all along.
When dealing with the BFEE any amount of vile actions becomes possible.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. Possible but unlikely

Ron Paul is the only one still trying to win the nomination and even Republicans won't accept him as their nominee.

[JHB]

7. A "blinkered" one is guaranteed...

...and a party so broke makes a brokered convention possible.

[onenote]

8. theoretically, anything is possible. realistically, the chances are zero.

[MadHound]

9. Perhaps,

Given what Ron Paul and his minions are up to, anything is possible. I've been saying for awhile, this Republican convention promises to be the most entertaining political convention in years and decades.

[WI_DEM]

12. Ron Paul and his minions will still go to the convention with well below any number of delegates

to cause any damage. Why can't people around here accept reality? Romney is the nominee.

[tanyev]

10. I'm stocking up an emergency supply of microwave popcorn, just in case.

[davidpdx]

13. I'll have the snacks ready as well

I'm going to watch the convention even if I have to get up in the middle of the damn night here in Korea.

[WI_DEM]

11. Romney will be the nominee and there will be no brokered convention.

By your reasoning there might need to be a brokered dem convention because we have high unemployment and an incumbent president who is only, by most polls, 3-4 points ahead of a very unlikable republican who is able to raise huge amounts of cash. But there won't be a brokered Dem convention either.

[davidpdx]

14. I don't see it happening, even as a last minute wild card thing to throw off Obama

The Republicans would essentially have a logistics nightmare on their hand having to switch everything over to another candidate only 10 or 11 weeks before the election. Even if it were planned for Romney to step aside before the convention, it would somehow get leaked to the press once they started printing stuff. Maybe something like this could have happened before the advent of 24 hour news, the internet and mobile phones, but today I just can't see how they'd pull it off.

[bluedigger]

15. Not in the traditional sense.

Romney has the votes and money locked up. I think Ron Paul will force Rand on him as VP, though.

[MineralMan]

16. I can't see any path to that.

Probability approaches zero.