Posted on 03/15/2016 4:37:26 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
Republicans have been talking about changing the rules for picking a presidential nominee at their national convention in Cleveland in July. Their best bet may be to go bold.
Right now, their options do not look good. Let's assume that Donald Trump finishes the primaries with more delegates than any other candidate, but not a majority, and Sen. Ted Cruz comes in second.
Trump is already arguing that having the most delegates entitles him to the nomination, and his sympathizers are saying that any other result would amount to stealing it from him. But a very large fraction of the party is still bitterly opposed to him, and seems likely to fight to keep him from getting a majority.
(snip)
It's not too late to apply some version of this idea to the choice of a Republican nominee. Republicans could change the rules of their convention to permit some kind of preferential ballot. The rule change would have to be proposed in advance, so that members of the convention's rules committee have time to consider it before voting on it during the week before all the delegates arrive in Cleveland. Then, if it passes the committee, a majority of delegates would have to vote for it too.
When it came time for the delegates to vote on the presidential nomination, delegates would rank their candidates - with pledged delegates putting the candidates to whom they are pledged at the top of their lists. It would probably also be necessary-to reduce the likelihood of accusations of dirty tricks - for each delegate to make his or her rank orderings public immediately after the vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
If Trump comes in with a plurality, Cruz exacts some conservative act, and throws his support to Trump.
Any other outcome would be a political (and quite possibly actual) bloodbath.
I don’t think it’s fair to change the rules after the game started.
But note that the rules do not say whoever enters the convention with the most delegates wins. They say if you enter with more than 1237 delegates you’re the nominee. If you enter with less you might be the nominee but someone else might still beat you depending on what happens in the convention.
Anyone who thinks that the person with the most delegates should automatically get the nomination is saying we should change the rules after the game already started. Maybe that should be the rule in the next election but it’s not the rule now.
Unless delegates have run as committed to Trump when they really aren’t, the only way that could happen is if the convention refused to seat certain delegates committed to Trump.
I’m not sure under what pretense that could happen.
I don’t see a bunch of, say, black delegates committed to Romney, demanding to be seated instead of the delegates who were duly elected.
Has any state broken party rules (say having their primary too early)?
At this point, I expect Trump to get more than 1237. I also expect Trump, Cruz, and no one else to get at least 8 delegations.
Should Trump get fewer than 1237, then obviously a deal can be made. Trump has likely burned his bridges with Cruz and Rubio so yes, if that does happen, he is likely to get pushed out.
The Chicago Tribune is giving us advise?
Well, bless their little hearts.
Ditto. That’s what I’ll be doing should trump get the most delegates and not get the nomination.
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