Rumblings of a brokered Republican convention are on the rise. Mitt Romney has done his best to squash that kind of talk to no avail. Rick Santorum himself now seems to be fanning the flames, saying the odds "are increasing" for a brokered convention.
"The convention will nominate a conservative," Santorum said on the Sunday morning show circuit. "They will not nominate the establishment moderate candidate from Massachusetts. When we nominate moderates, when we nominate a Tweedledum versus Tweedledee, we don’t win elections."
Republicans went down this road in 1964, and it didn't turn out so well for them. MSNBC’s Chuck Todd walked us down GOP memory lane on his show today.
Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, a staunch conservative, and an army of right-wingers staged a coup, of sorts, to sweep up the presidential nomination. His opponent Nelson Rockefeller, a more liberal Republican from the east coast, tried to label Goldwater as an "extremist." Sound familiar? You could literally Photoshop the faces of 2012 candidates over the talking heads on TV from 1964.
President Lyndon Johnson beat Goldwater by a landslide, successfully capitalizing on the drawn out drama within the Republican Party.
The very wise Chuck Todd warned, "When you have ideological fights inside the nominating process, you are dooming yourself for the general election." He said, "It’s hard to imagine how you unite the party and not give the opposing party the opportunity to run against that dysfunction."
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I wonder if we Democrats are just hoping for a brokered convention and are making a BIG mistake in saying that the infighting of the Repubs is going to help Obama. Maybe, but what if the Repubs are not that dissatified and they do get out and vote?
The campaign needs to be on the positive side, showing and educating the range of voters(repubs,democats, and indpendents)on what the Obama admin. accomplished, the benefits of Ins. reform and Student Loan reforms and the other main accomplishements of the admin.
If everyone becomes complancent and waits for the Repubs to self-destruct, you may wind up on the day after election with a Repub President.
One does have to wonder about the GOP. They cannot even find a canidate they like how do they exxpect to win an election? The seriousness of the issues facing America is the only priority they should be talking about. Yet, they offer anything and everything to rile the base "KNOWING" they cannot win the general election with these's stunts.
Look a brokered Republican convention only continues the "Train Wreck" narrative for this party which obviously impairs their changes with Independence's and generally sane people who also vote. The loon extremists of their party will vote for a baboon who can hold a " I hate Obama" sign so there won't be any big movement there.
Final segment w/ Dana Milbank tonight re: the perplexing decision by Mitt to keep Seamus, the Romney family dog, on the roof of the car for the journey to Canada brought something to mind--I submit that Willard was likely a huge stoner back in the day. How could I arrive at that conclusion, you ask? I've been thinking about this for weeks now, and his is only the 2nd dog I know of to possess the name Seamus--the other, is the Irish Setter on the song Seamus from the 1971 Pink Floyd album, Meddle, and also in the classic movie, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. Mitt is a closet stoner/centrist in wolves clothing. Can anybody else picture Mitt cranking the Floyd, holding deep bonghits of elitist-quality weed, bought with "Father's" $$ of course, and declaring "I'll never sell out and be like my dad!" to his frat buddies at Hahvahd??? Smoke a bowl, Mitt!
A brokered convention is exactly what the R's need ..... primary vote has been depressed Vs 2008 for a couple of reasons: a/the unprecedented splurge of negative ads and personal attacks (especially from Romney .... won't work in the general because O has tons of cash and therefore Romney at a disadvantage) and b/the voters are not excited by any of the candidates. A brokered convention could put the Dems on the back foot, especially if R's pick a candidate who connects and resonates with voters, and if that candidate is a "boots and all" campaigner who will go after O's record, his radical past, and present a clear unambiguous and optimistic CONTRAST to to Dems politics of fear and envy .... Americans are conservative and optimistic and ready to be unleashed by a leader who gets government out of the way, reduces government debt, returns to founding principles and is uncompromising and clear about the future.