Lincoln's Election of 1860 vs. the 2008 Election

Pure Vanity Post | 01.08.2008 | JustTheTruth

[JustTheTruth]

In the Republican Presidential Primary of 1860, there were a number of candidates at the Republican convention, and none of them had a majority of the delegates. The outcome of the convention was that an unlikely candidate was selected, not because he was everybody's "first choice," but because he turned out to be the most popular "second choice" candidate. Other candidates with more delegates could not get selected as the "second choice" by enough to put them over the top with a majority, and Abraham Lincoln was selected and of course went on to win the Presidential election that Fall.
In 2008, if enough candidates do not drop out of the Republican primaries prior to the convention, could the same thing happen again?

[JustTheTruth]

Any predictions on who the most popular "second choice" Republican candidate would be if a scenario arises in 2008 that is similar to the 1860 situation, in terms of no one candidate being able to secure a majority of delegates? If the field stays broad through February 5th, this seems like it could conceivably become a possibility ...

[Sherman Logan]

The other factor was that all the leading candidates hated each other so much they wouldn’t consider letting one of the others win. Nobody at the convention really hated Lincoln.

Interestingly, Lincoln later brought all these guys into his cabinet, where several of them thought they would be able to secretly control this hick from the sticks. With a single exception, they all wound up as loyal Lincoln supporters once they found out that Lincoln wasn’t going to be controlled by anybody.

[Common Tator]

In 1860 there was a lot of delegate vote buying. Some were offered jobs in the adminstration, others were offered money and local offices.

Lincoln called in the press to sit in on one of his staff meetings. Lincoln then instructed his staff to NOT TO BUY ANY DELEGATE VOTES IN HIS NAME!

When the press left Lincoln's staffers asked how they could be expected to get him the nomination if they could not buy delegate votes.

Lincoln said, "I didn't say you couldn't buy votes. I just told you not to buy them in my NAME!!"

They bought enough delegate votes to get Lincoln the nomination.

[ElkGroveDan]

My second choice is Dick Cheney.

[Man50D]

What makes Lincoln’s nomination more incredible is that he had not held office for 11 years since 1849 and failed twice to become a Senator! The GOP race this year is wide open. Anyone still in the race can win the nomination.

[Romneyfor President2008]

Thanks for the history lesson. I hope Romney has enough $$$ to buy the delegates. Muwwahhaha!! :-)

[11th_VA]

I think Rush is going to sink the GOP by supporting Bloomberg ...

[K-oneTexas]

As of right now (after two States primaries/caucus) = Romney.

[dangus]

Thompson is clearly the 2nd-choice candidate, the guy everyone loves but all but the wonks believe isn’t really running.

[dangus]

Rush support Nurse Bloomberg? Ha! He’d sooner support Hillary Clinton. Rush is singularly why Republicans know not to vote for Nurse Bloomberg; I believe he even gave Nurse Bloomberg the name Nurse Bloomberg!

[Vroomfondel]

So... you’re saying Fred needs to grow a beard, right?