SandBoxBlogs: Town Hall/Rachel Alexander "Should the GOP Hope For a Brokered Convention?"

Good column from Rachel Alexander, editor of the Intellectual Conservative and Town Hall contributor.

Without giving insight into my own personal feelings regarding a brokered convention; there is a very positive aspect that makes for a major plus to having one.

Mitt Romney alone cannot beat Barack Obama.  He's going to have to have a strong leader that people can trust to not back down as his backbone in the VP slot.  If he chooses someone like Santorum thinking it will pull votes, they both will lose.  The conservative base, Tea Party and GOP establishment really have not spoken up fully yet.  The common man and working class conservative does not believe strongly enough in either man to get excited over them.

And to beat the major money Obama has and the sureness of even the millions of liberals out there that are not all that keen on Obama;  conservatives need to be fired up.

The big plus to having a brokered convention is to bring in someone who can bolster up Newt.  He is the only candidate still standing that has the strength of leadership and political skill to win.  He also has nothing to lose over the next four years because there are simply no more skeletons for media fodder.  His age and his past are actually now assets for Newt Gingrich.  The thing about Newt is that he inspires confidence with his courage to lead.

America doesn't need just one hero right now.  We need two.  This GOP primary has uncovered so many weaknesses in the political leadership of conservative elections that we are already 'brokered'.  Now we need to be pulled together.

Will Romney try somebody like Jeb Bush?  Maybe.  If so, the machine on the left will still leave them both behind.  Bush the third doesn't have the fearless kind of leadership that Gingrich, Perry, Christie have.  Wonderful person, great man and a terrific leader.  But certainly not the working conservative type that we're looking for out here.

No matter where it goes, the one certainty is that this will eventually be seen as one of the most historically famous GOP primary seasons.

Rachel Alexander:
"As the Republican presidential primary drags on, 27 debates later, with no candidate yet obtaining 50% of the delegates, speculation is increasing that the nominee may end up being selected in a brokered convention. If none of the candidates win a minimum of 1,144 delegates in the primaries and caucuses, then the Republican convention becomes a brokered convention where the nominee is chosen by freewheeling delegates. Delegates would be permitted to change their votes at the convention and support anyone, even new candidates. Ballot contests are held until one candidate achieves a majority of delegate votes.

The three candidates left in the race besides Mitt Romney are hoping for a brokered convention since it is practically impossible now for them to get enough delegates. Rick Santorum, in second place after Romney, needs 70% of the remaining delegates to win. As frontrunner, Romney opposes a brokered convention, needing only half of the remaining delegates to win the nomination.

There are plenty of problems with a brokered convention. It leaves Republican candidates taking jabs at each other instead of Obama for a much longer period, spending most of their money in the primary instead of against Obama. The convention begins August 27. The last primary this year is Utah’s on June 26. By the end of August, there will be only a couple of months left for the race against Obama. Republican candidates have been taking shots at each other since the beginning of last summer and a brokered convention means that infighting drags out for well over a year. Hugh Hewitt observed that a new candidate who has not participated in the primary yet may find it difficult to get into the national fundraising game this late against Obama.

The most troubling part about a brokered convention is it leaves the nominating process to be decided by backroom dealing. Instead of a mostly democratic process of electing the nominee, the nominee would be chosen by political hacks...." (Read more?  Click title)

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