Posted on 11/07/2007 10:50:27 AM PST by GQuagmire
What are the chances that the Republican nominee for President will be determined at the convention next August? And if so, will that hurt our chances in the general election in November.
Check out old kinescopes of speeches at that convention, particularly Everett Dirksen's rant against Tom Dewey, the young Nelson Rockefeller and others who wanted Eisenhower instead of Taft, Dirksen's favorite.
Brokered conventions are always exciting, but because they are not scripted, they terrify party professionals. You never know what is going to happen and how the press is going to spin it.
Ping. What are your memories of the brokered conventions of the 1940’s?
It’ll be basically over by the first couple of weeks in February..............
and the winner is....................?
Your guess is as good as mine at this point in time.........I’m hoping for a FRed Thompson landslide...............
Really low chance
Alright, who is it going to be?
Fred Thompson
I can see only one scenario where someone was nominated at the national convention. If something changed just prior to it and Dick “Darth” Cheney decided to run. I would be delighted if that happened.
Actually, I would prefer a GOP grass roots movement that stood up “favorite son” candidates in every state primary on a campaign of (and electing delegates on) a primary platform of “None of the Above”.
Then as it progressed to obtaining a majority, it could become a pre-convention coalition that looked for the GOP dark horse - based on conservative principals, immigration and complete border enforcement before “reform” on general immigration rules, immediate expanded immigration for the highly skilled - including H2b reform, and with those attributes and positions (and others) found in a great communicator. And the overly ambitious existing leadership class need not apply.
I’m actually HOPING for a good old fashioned convention fight.
Even that convention only took 1 ballot, since the decision was made in a vote on delegate credentials, where a number of state delegations for Taft were thrown out and Eisenhower delegates were seated instead.
Just before that point they started choosing candidates on the basis of a simple majority, instead of the previously required two-thirds majority. When it took 2/3, and there were a lot of states who ran local guys as favorite sons, deadlocks were frequent, and candidates were often chosen by back room deals in '[cigar]smoke-filled rooms'. In addition the vast majority of delegates were chosen by party caucuses without primaries. Back in the 1920's one democrat convention took over 100 ballots, at a rate of two or three ballots a day. If that happenned this time, we won't have a nominee until October.
If there is a brokered convention,the lamestream media will be all over the Republicans.....can’t get their house in order,disorganized,blah,blah,blah......
I don’t care about the LSM, I want to see a knock-down, drag-out, battle Royale between the 3 or 4 top candidates at the convention, franbkly it would be the most excitement at one of these things since Pat Buchanons’ speech in ‘92.
Intrade has a new set of contracts, covering the possibility of brokered conventions. Bid is at 15%, ask is at 25%, earlier sold at 50%.
Brokered Party Conventions in 2008
REP.NOM.2008.BROKERED
The 2008 Republican Pres. Nominee to be selected at a Brokered Convention M 15.0 25.0 50.0 2 new
.
.
.
According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
I don’t see a problem with the nomination being decided at the convention. With any luck, we could also get the primaries back to a reasonable schedule, instead of having the two nominees determined at the same time baseball spring training is just starting. This rush to decision time is a national mistake, and the sooner we get over it, the better.
I think it would be a disater against Hillary but probably not Obama. The news junkie in me would love to see a brokered convention and it is possible that all the drama would attract voters who normally tune conventions out. But I don’t believe it suits the GOP very well unless a darkhorse “compromise” candidate came forth that most could live with and actually unify the party base. It would need to be somebody already vetted and financially capable of putting together a campaign almost overnight. Can’t tell you who that man could be.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.