Yet, John McCain was the nominee. This was due in large part to opening states like Florida to non-GOP voters, and by making sure that more moderate states disproportionately allocate their votes to the winner of that state's primary.
The “trick” was most evident in the Buchanan/Dole slug-fest of 1996, where the GOP began a process of opening-up more and more states’ primaries to ensure an edge for the more Moderate candidate after Buchanan scared the hell out of George H.W. Bush a few years earlier (they had also begun a process of publicly talking-down the Iowa caucus after it became apparent that it was a SoCon stronghold - more Moderate candidates even began to skip it entirely). They then changed the rules of the debates to prevent candidates from asking each other direct questions (this would later be “tweaked” in one or two debates to allow for a single question to be posed candidate-to-candidate), so as to prevent firebrand populists from de-pantsing the Party Guy or tripping the Party Guy into a deadly soundbite goof.
Finally, they opened up three very large primaries that would have voted Buchanan over Dole had just GOP voters been the ones casting ballots.
There are several tricks the party uses to make sure their candidate has a nearly insurmountable edge. We will see more “tweaking” in the coming days to ensure Romney has an unfair advantage.
Sorry but independents have the right to vote in primaries. Are you advocating close primaries for just Republican registered voters? Were these primaries closed for Republicans during Reagan time for example? GW Bush?
The GOP doesn't open state primaries. State law makers, many of them Democrat controlled, pass local laws that put requirements, such as openness, on primary elections.
The only affordable alternative for the GOP, is to scrap such open primary elections in favor of a caucuses.
Fine with me. I can find other things to do election day. And I know a lot more who feel the same way.
It may be that There are several tricks that both progressive parties (RINO and Democrat) use to make sure their candidate has a nearly insurmountable edge. The tricks get more numerous and more refined every year. Been going on since the beginning of the 20th century, so more than a 100 years now. Time for the death of the progressive parties....R & D! just don't want to see the death of one of them, leaving the other intact! Both need a serious case of RICO lawsuits (yep, I'm calling for another lawyer welfare plan), but then since most lawyers and judges are 'rats, that would just leave them in charge, like they are now! If voters are educated, we might be able to sort it out, but if the NEA continues its 'education' program, we'll continue to be a one party country!