Posted on 03/20/2016 1:47:32 PM PDT by reaganaut1
With the prospect of a contested convention looming over the Republican presidential primary, Donald J. Trump on Sunday complained about the party’s rules requiring a candidate to have a majority of delegates to clinch the nomination outright.
Asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” why he should be “guaranteed the nomination” if he failed to amass the 1,237 delegates needed to win it on the first ballot, Mr. Trump said that he might be unable to clear that threshold. But he blamed the number of contenders in the Republican field.
“If I’m a little bit short – and one of the reasons was we had so many candidates,” he said. “I mean, we started off with 17 candidates.”
He added: “There are so many candidates, so it’s very hard to get over that number. It’s very unfair.”
He said that denying him the nomination under those circumstances would “disenfranchise” people who voted for him.
But the party’s national chairman, Reince Priebus, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” defended the system for how Republicans choose their standard-bearer as a “delegate-driven process.” He noted that his own floor battle to win the chairmanship went to the seventh ballot, and said that a plurality alone would not be treated as a majority.
“History would show, whether it be Walter Mondale, Gerald Ford, when someone’s a little bit short, you know, you let the process play out,” he said. “And generally if it’s that close, generally that’s what happens. But certainly what I would say is that the minority of delegates doesn’t rule for the majority.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The rules for politics and various other things don’t always make sense.
My first rule of “life” that my kids were ingrained with -
“Life isn’t fair.”
But I’m sure Mr. Trump understands that by now.
Sorry - to be clearer - I’m sure he learned that a long time ago.
The situation is not unique to him of course, but Trump does have a point. Perhaps it would be better if at the 1/3 way point only the top two candidates would be allowed to go on.
Trump’s being proactive here letting them all know he and his voters aren’t gonna roll over easy should the GOPee pull out some monkey business—and they already have done just that.
And if it’s unfair to him, I can assure you I won’t be supporting the party’s candidate in the general election.
That’s one of my rules. I hope the GOPe understands that.
HeHeHeHeHeHeHeHe
If Jeb! had the delegates that Trump has right now the GOPee
would have already anointed him the nominee.
Everyone knows this is true.
Romney was the nominee and he did not meet the required number of delegates.
The game is supposed to be rigged. The problem for the GOPe is that they may not have rigged it as thoroughly as they had hoped.
Trump may get the delegates he needs.
But if he doesn’t get 1237, the GOPe get to contest everything and get Jeb or Mitt or some other loser to “win” the nomination. But now that means the party commits suicide.
It’s just not playing our as they had hoped.
So these rules didn’t exist before Trump decided to run?
I guess Trump finally figured out that insulting every last one of his competitors is not the best way to get their delegates to support him.
As an example do you think Trumps 48 delegates in Texas are going to stay with him after they are cleared on the third ballot? What about the 50 from South Carolina, that Nikki Haley is coming up with? I have a very good idea where the Iowa delegates will go after the first ballot.
I guess Mr. Greatest Negotiator in the World should have read the rules a little more closely.
Of course. But you get nothing if you don’t ask.
If rule 40 stands, Trump will be the only nominee. Cruz has to win the majority delegates of 4 more states. He probably will get Utah, but what else?
Kasich needs 7 more.
Trump already has his 8. I think he is at 9 or 10 after Tuesday.
Yes, as Mr. Trump schooled us around two weeks ago, fifty per cent is an arbitrary number. Any such purely arbitrary threshold should have no bearing on who wins and who loses in a political contest.
Mr. Trump is never wrong. Therefore the rules certainly must be changed for his benefit.
Much better to use St. Ted's method...eliminate the middle man, insult the voters yourself.
This may get me lynched, and I understand the not rolling over part, but why should the party chose a candidate supported by a minority, or even a plurality of the voters?
The rolling geographical nature of the primaries also represents a barrier to rules that winnow candidates early. I am actually interested to see what happens from here on out. If you combine Trump votes with say, Kasich votes, you have a landslide. However, it could easily go the other way if the candidate constituencies combine against Trump for one of the other single candidates.
I hate the words “not fair” when you know the rules going in..
Cruz will satisfy rule 40. He may win others, but he will win the majority of delegates in Utah, Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.