Posted on 01/19/2016 6:21:04 PM PST by Kaslin
As Republicans prepare to cast their first presidential ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire, the field remains dominated by "outsider" candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, while establishment favorites Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Marco Rubio have been unable to advance to the finals. Will the Republican kingmakers and consultants who picked every nominee since Reagan step aside to let the grassroots, also known as the "base," work its will this year?
After months of waiting for Trump to self-destruct, the Washington-based Republican establishment has finally found a way to take back control of the party from the outsiders and grassroots. The plan revolves around the newly empowered House Speaker, Paul Ryan, who is openly contemptuous of Trump and has little use for Cruz.
To signal his intentions, Ryan tapped South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to give the official Republican response to President Obama's final State of the Union address. Haley admitted she cleared her remarks with the Speaker, who then let it be known that she would be a fine choice for vice president.
With Ryan's blessing, Haley used her national platform to slam the "angriest voices" in the presidential campaign and disavow the Republican front-runner's popular call for a temporary pause in Muslim immigration. She seemed to be responding more to Trump than Obama, so it's no wonder that her speech was praised by Obama's press secretary and the White House chief of staff.
Congressman Diaz-Balart, who was also selected by Speaker Ryan, delivered the Spanish-language version of Haley's response. According to a translation provided by the Miami Herald, Diaz-Balart promised that Republicans would work toward "a legislative solution ... to those who live in the shadows" (i.e., amnesty), and would also "modernize the visa system and push the economy forward" (i.e., import even more low-wage guest workers).
Ryan then led Republicans on a two-day retreat with an "aspirational agenda" of "inclusiveness and optimism," which is meant to be a direct contrast to the campaign themes of Trump and Cruz. Much favorable press coverage describes Ryan as a "counterweight to Trump" or the "anti-Trump" who wants to give the eventual nominee a "platform to run on."
Memo to the Speaker: the official Republican platform will be written and adopted by delegates to the national convention, most of whom are disappointed with the ineffectiveness of the Boehner-Cantor-McCarthy-Ryan Congress. As a veteran of past platform writing committees, I promise that this year's delegates will have no use for Ryan's open-borders ideology, which holds that anyone who can find a low-wage job should be allowed to settle in the United States.
Paul Ryan obviously resents the rise of Trump and Cruz and would do anything in his power to prevent either from winning the nomination, but could he influence the convention? To answer that question, consider a remarkable article in the Wall Street Journal by the kingmakers' top lawyer, Ben Ginsberg.
Ginsberg predicts "pure chaos" if the convention opens on July 18 with no candidate holding a majority of the delegates, and he suggests plausible scenarios by which the establishment kingmakers could try to manage a "chaotic" convention to produce a nominee acceptable to them. The RNC needs to "be sure that the arena and hotel rooms are available if the convention goes more than four days," which hasn't happened in my lifetime.
To see what can happen at a deadlocked convention, consider the Republican convention of 1880, which ran for seven days because none of the three leading candidates could reach a majority. After 34 failed ballots the convention finally turned to a "dark horse," nominating Congressman James Garfield for president and Chester Arthur for vice president, neither of whom was even running when the convention opened.
Ben Ginsberg understands the critical importance of convention rules and credentials for boxing out the grassroots in favor of the establishment candidate. That's what happened at the 1952 Republican convention, where I watched the kingmakers steal the nomination for Dwight Eisenhower by unseating delegates pledged to the Republican favorite, Senator Robert A. Taft.
Ginsberg admits he wants to change the infamous Rule 40, which he wrote in 2012 to prevent a second candidate (Ron Paul) from being placed in nomination at Mitt Romney's convention. If no candidate wins on the first ballot, delegates are no longer bound to vote for their state's primary winner and are free to support a "dark horse" who never competed in a presidential primary or participated in a televised debate.
That's how "dark horse" Paul Ryan could become our nominee. Such an outcome could destroy the Republican party and guarantee a Democratic victory by causing disheartened grassroots voters to stay home and tempting an aggrieved candidate to mount a third party or independent presidential campaign.
And that would be one of - if not the - final nails in the coffin of the GOP. I wouldn’t vote for Paul Ryan for dog catcher.
She has always been a heroine to me - one of our very finest female minds.
-JT
Amazing the things you hear being said about Trump are near identical to things said about Obama in 2008. “People don’t understand...he’s so beyond, above our ability to comprehend.” Cult of personality? I see no plausible justification to think otherwise.
I don’t appreciate so called conservatives endorsing liberals.
I find Trumps personality repulsive but I am still voting for him. This is NOT a personality contest.
As Republicans prepare to cast their first presidential ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire, the field remains dominated by “outsider” candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, while establishment favorites Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Marco Rubio have been unable to advance to the finals. Will the Republican kingmakers and consultants who picked every nominee since Reagan step aside to let the grassroots, also known as the “base,” work its will this year? >>> and yes the nominee will be yeb
This article is total nonsense. The GOPe has totally lost control of the primary campaign. There will be a clear winner either Trump or Cruz and its looking like Trump. The GOPe will hop on board with whoever the winner is and we will all proceed from there. That’s what spineless Quisling’s do. They go along and try to get along.>> unless a candidate wins 8 primaries as a majority he will not be a candidate at the convention. all of the underlings keep anyone trump cruz rubio krispie from actually being the nominee. the gop will have yeb. and the dems may have saunders.
He will likely try to make the nomination decided entirely by the delegates, allow delegates to cast their votes independently of what the voters want, hire college kids off the streets to be the delegates for Yeb/Rube-o, and intimidate/kidnap/kill any Trump/Cruz delegates.
We must be prepared to fight, because Paul Raqqan will not let a conservative win the nomination unless he is forced to.
My father had her book “Choice Not An Echo” prominently displayed in our living room 50 years ago. About the same time Reagan began running for governor.
disheartened grassroots voters to stay home and tempting an aggrieved candidate to mount a third party or independent presidential campaign.They better be careful what they wish for. They will be blown away at how YUUGE that independent/third party would be too. I hope they don't think it will be just Republicans headed for a third/independent party.
i read the article from Phyllis. don’t matter no front runner will be considered they won’t have 8 states over 50% which is a requirement to be a candidate at the convention. it will be an open convention before it starts.
Well it makes for fun coffee conversation but there will be a clear winner prior to the convention just like there always is.
Several FReepers could learn from this.
If their hatred would allow them to accept the facts and not the hyperbole
The Wall Street Cartel that rules the GOP would rather have a Hillary Clinton presidency than Donald Trump. Wall Street has Hillary in their back pocket. The Donald, not so much.
“People don’t understand...he’s so beyond, above our ability to comprehend.”
No it’s not like that at all. One difference is Trump has actually accomplished something in his life prior to running for a political office. Obama didn’t.
It’s not to hard to figure out, watch the video.
Ryan needs to go. Along with any others from the oligarchy that think like this.
Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley
Born January 20, 1972 in Bamberg, SC. (Jus Soli.)
Father was Dr. Ajit Singh Randhawa, born 1933 in Amritsar Punjab, India.
Naturalized as a US Citizen 18 Oct 1977.
Father was NOT a US Citizen at the time of birth of Nikki
.
She is NOT a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN
Mother was Raj Kaur Randhawa, born in India. Unable as yet to find US Naturalization.
U know the game...DRINK!
Paul Ryan needs to be removed as speaker after his attacks on Trump...
Of course the gop won’t stand down. But I think their strategy will be to undermine the nominee. In actuality what is going on in the rat nomination is very important because that’ll decide if the gop is going to overtly support the rat.
I doubt a overt steal the nomination strategy is in the cards. Evil and kleptocratic as the uniparty are, they won’t risk starting a hot CW II over it.
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