[GLDNGUN]

The NeverTrump folks are desperately searching for someone to run as a 3rd-party candidate to stop Trump. They would need someone with instant name recognition, money, nothing to lose in the way of current elective office and the ability to unite the NeverTrump blue bloods and NeverTrump conservatives. Romney would get all sorts of endorsements from big-name GOP pols like the Bushes, Graham, Sasse, etc., perhaps even Ted Cruz. Romney could say he is doing it reluctantly to "save the country" and offer Americans a 3rd option. The GOPs that support him instead of the party's standard-bearer can rationalize and say "Hey, Romney is a Republican and was our party's nominee 4 years ago, so he's mainstream".

Would Romney have a chance of beating Trump and dem nominee in the general election? No, I would assume Romney would come in a distant third. So then how could he possibly end up as President?

All he has to do is get enough electoral votes to keep both Trump and the dem nominee from getting a majority (270) of electoral votes. Romney could do that by winning just 1 state, while Trump and the dem nominee split the other electoral down the middle. In reality Romney could probably peal off 2 or more states, such as Utah and Idaho for starters.

With no candidate getting a majority of electoral votes the election of the President then goes to the House of Representatives, where the top 3 electoral vote getters qualify for the "run off". Each state's Congressional delegations vote and the winner of each state gets 1 vote. So Utah is worth 1 vote, same as California and every other state.

In such a scenario it's safe to assume that the states with a democrat-majority delegation will vote for the democrat nominee straight up. That would be 15 of the 50 states, leaving Trump and Romney to split 33 GOP-majority delegate states. Maine and New Hampshire each are split 1-1 Dem-GOP, so they may be wildcards or may cancel each other out.

Arizona and Colorado have a very slim GOP-majorities in their state delegations, meaning if the GOP reps split their votes between Trump and Romney instead of uniting behind one candidate, those states will also go Dem as the dem reps will all vote for their nominee. That could put the dem nominee up to 17 states, leaving 31 states remaining.

WHO are the GOP office holders in those 31-33 states going to vote for? The outsider Trump? Or establishment Romney? Are those GOP office holders mostly establishment guys themselves? Even if Trump had the most popular and electoral votes, would they vote the will of the people? Or their own self interests? Do I need to even answer that question?

If Romney gets enough GOP state delegations to vote for him to surpass Trump and the Dem, then viola - President Romney.

Almost as bizarrely, the Senate would vote for the VP among the top 2 electoral vote getters, leaving Romney's VP nominee out. A GOP majority Senate would then probably take Trump's VP nominee, assuming it's someone they could abide, like Chris Christie.

This is the nightmare scenario that I fear, where Romney not only denies Trump the Presidency but grabs it for himself.

The fact that Romney knows he would have a chance to do this makes it even more likely he will run.

[kara37]

They are not going to run just one candidate. They are going to run 5 or 6 different people in a handful of states.
They will pick a well known, popular person from each of those states that has a good chance of winning their state.

[Enlightened1]

I seem to recall not too long ago that the Republican Party was concerned Trump was going to do this.....

I remember hearing from clowns like Jeb, Romney and Ryan how bad this would be for the Republican Party.

As a matter of fact one of the first questions in the first Republican debate in Clevland was will you going to support the Republican nominee no matter who it was. Funny how so many of these guys that were all for this have suddenly changed their mind after Trunp won.

[Fiji Hill]

This is bizarre. Romney’s son said that he really didn’t want to be president in 2012, and I find that quite plausible. Otherwise, why did he take a dive in the final two presidential debates after winning the first one hands down?

If he really wants to be president, why didn’t he throw his hat into the ring at the start of the primary season? Why start now, when he has no money, no campaign organization, and it’s probably too late to get on the ballot in many states?

[Georgia Girl 2]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling said Chicken Little.

There is little to no chance Mitt Romney is going to run as an Independent. There is a small cadre of politicians and members of the chattering class who are seeing their gravy train leave the station and they are throwing a tantrum. Some like Paul Ryan will likely ruin their political career over it.

Donald J. Trump is the next nominee of the GOP and likely the next President. This will all be finalized at the Republican convention.

The Republican voting base is purging the party of stale leftovers such as the Bush dynasty and failed candidates like Mitt Romney. Look for a lot of screeching and whining as they reluctantly exit the stage. But there will be no third party.

[going hot]

If he replaced Hillary on the ballot, maybe he may get a few votes.

[xzins]

We already know that Romney does not cut into the liberal vote. He will cut into Trump’s vote so that NEITHER of them win the states that Trump is supposed to get while Clinton wins all of those she is supposed to get.

IOW, the ONLY beneficiary of this plan is Hillary Clinton.