Interesting results so far. The Huckster had to win Iowa to become thought of as a first tier candidate and he did. McCain had to win NH to stay in the game. He did. Romney had to win on his home turf in Michigan, which he did. Now, who needs to win most in SC? Fred. My guess is that he might. And then Rudy has to win in Florida and he’s at least 50-50 to do that, based on the way I think things will shake out.

This should be an interesting nominating season. We may not have a clear cut favorite for the GOP even after Super Tuesday. Brokered convention, here we come.

Does anyone know what exactly happens in a brokered convention?

Back in the days of yon when the public accepted the concept of “to the victors belongs the spoils” there was a lot of deal making..jobs promised, support of programs promised, closet doors opened and closed, and some give and take on the parities platform. I think we had stronger political parties and the country was better for it.

The past few decades the conventions have been farces..just a place to put the rubber stamp on the nominee and the nominee has to nothing to bring a party together to work as a party.

Politics is about power and a united political party can be a powerful party.

To paraphrase a famous man of the 1930’s, “I don’t belong to an organized political party..I am a republican.”

Ann, depends on what you mean by “brokered convention.”

There used to be the “smoke filled room” convention where the voters had almost no input into the selection of the candidate, and the decision was made by the bosses of the big city machines and other powerful party leaders.

Then there was the “horse trader” conventions, where party primaries winnowed the field, but did not offer up a clear-cut winner, and left a lot of undecided delegates - or delegates belonging to clearly unelectable candidates - up for grabs. The decision would be made by the leading candidates horse-trading support until a candidate was selected.

The last one of those we saw was the JFK nomination in 1960, (with the horse-trading that made JFK the nominee and LBJ the veep) although if RFK had survived, we would have seen a similar situation in the 1968 Chicago convention. As it turned out, with RFK dead and LBJ sidelined, there was no real doubt that Humphrey would be the Dem nominee over McCarthy.

The horsetrading on platforms, by the way, is meaningless. Platforms haven’t meant a damned thing for sixty or seventy years. Planks are just payoffs to placate various interest groups, without actually giving them anything real.

With the rise of the primaries and the increased influence of the MSM, those sorts of conventions have disappeared. They are possible in theory, but very difficult to create in practice.

I think it’s entirely possible that we could see several major GOP candidates with significant delegate support and/or primary victories going into Super Tuesday. But until that colossus is out of the way, I’d be hesitant to predict a convention that was anything other than the coronations they have all been since the sixties. If we come out of Super Tuesday with three or four more or less equal candidacies, then yes, I’d say the odds are much better for a horse-trader convention in the GOP.

Actually, GUYK, it was Will Rogers who said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”