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A brokered convention is where no candidate gains a majority of delegates through the primary and caucus process. That means the party’s power brokers sit down in a smoke-filled room at the convention and decide the nominee. That nominee may well be someone fresh, who has not run via the primary and caucus process.

If Newt and Santorum were to team up, would that eliminate the possibility of a brokered convention?

Mitchell’s married to Alan Greenspan so, yeah, if she says she knows what the GOP elites are thinking, I’d trust her.

Maybe the GOP is going to create some all-powerful “super delegates.”

Has anyone analyzed what Newt’s path to the nomination might be free and clear, winning a majority of delegates? Any analysis would have to account for which states are proportional and which are winner-take-all. The fact that a lot of states were switched to proportional this time means the contest might go on longer and it’s less likely a candidate will get a majority of delegates this time.

Who exactly is in charge of decisions like switching the delegates to proportional? Was it Michael Steele? Reince Preibus or other guys in the smoky backroom?

A brokered convention is where no candidate gains a majority of delegates through the primary and caucus process. That means the party’s power brokers sit down in a smoke-filled room at the convention and decide the nominee. That nominee may well be someone fresh, who has not run via the primary and caucus process.

Two problems with that scenario:

1) The delegates are still the ones that have the final decision on who the nominee will be. They are only bound on their 1st vote, after that they can vote for whoever they want.

2) Ron Paul has been making plans for a brokered convention for 4 years. What he did was have his supporters sign up to be convention delegates for OTHER candidates (Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, etc...) They'll be bound to vote for their pledged candidate on the first ballot, but after that they'll be all Paul's.

Nobody knows exactly how many phantom Paul delegates there are, but what I'm hearing is it's a pretty big number. If Paul goes into the convention with 15% of the delegates plus 15% phantom delegates, that would give him around 30% on the second ballot (he might actually get more than Romney on the second ballot).

At that point, it only takes 20% of the other delegates to get ticked enough at the GOP establishment to say screw-it and make Paul the nominee just to give the finger to the GOP establishment.

That anyway, seems to be Paul's plan. A heck of a long shot, but you have to give him points for imagination.

Thanks. I appreciate the help.