No, I’m not crazy.Okay, maybe I’m slightly crazy but let me make my case. I haven’t commented on the republican primaries because I haven’t found them to be all that interesting. Romney is going to be the nominee. Romney was always going to be the nominee. None of the drama that ensues along the way, was every going to be memorable in a long lasting way.
The primaries weren’t interesting to me until now. They got interesting when Newt reverted back to the Newt we all know and loathe. But that alone didn’t do it. The emergence of the old, loathsome Newt combined with an infusion of $5 million dollars (to help him amplify his hatefulness) is what has peaked my interest. Newt is determined to implement a scorched earth campaign on Romney. He’s going to leave Mitt as bloody and bruised as his funds will allow.
Here’s why that’s interesting; republican primaries are not set up as “winner take all” elections. So if a candidate wins the primary in a state with 39% of the vote, they don’t get all of the delegates for that state. They get a percentage of delegates that is roughly proportionate to the percentage they won the state by. If Mitt Romney keeps “winning” each state by getting less than 50% of the votes, he won’t have 51% of the delegates and will not be the nominee. He would have to go to one of the other candidates that have the percentage of delegates that he needs to broker some kind of deal with them, in exchange for giving him their delegates.
We can safely assume that Santorum, Perry, and Huntsman will be out after South Carolina. I have a feeling that Paul is staying in until the end, which makes Gingrich the determining factor in Romney’s fate. If Gingrich can hang in until super Tuesday, he sets up Ron Paul as the “king maker” that Romney will have to deal with to get the delegates he needs to be the nominee. That’s a big “if”. Right now, Gingrich’s campaign is being fueled by one single donor that, thanks to citizen’s united, stuffed his PAC with $5 million dollars. $5 million goes a long way in South Carolina because it’s such a small media market with relatively cheap air time. If he can’t get more money, he won’t make it beyond South Carolina. But if Gingrich makes it to super Tuesday, he will be siphoning those votes away from Romney. If Paul can keep getting 20% – 25%, that puts Romney at less that 50% in a lot of primaries.
Gingrich won’t make it all the way to the end for a couple of reasons. First off, his vitriol and arrogance will most definitely gaffe him out of the race. Secondly, he’s going to need several fairy Godmothers to “PAC” him $500 million dollars. Before citizen’s united, that would have been impossible. As it stands now, he has a small chance. He’s also got the party elders gunning for him, so he won’t be raising any funds through traditional means. Karl Rove seems to be on a war path against Gingrich.
So if all of that happens (I’m not saying it’s likely, but this is fun!), then Ron Paul ends up with the delegates that Romney needs. These deals are obviously usually centered around getting the Vice Presidential slot. I don’t believe that Ron Paul has the slightest interest in being the VP on the ticket. Plus, he’s older than god. I don’t think that reminiscing about his play dates with Jesus are going to play well with voters.
No, he’s going to deal for his miscreant son that no one likes. Hence, my theory that Vice President Rand Paul may be an ugly, ugly reality we may face just as we’re feeling safe that the republican car has passed us by.
Just remember, BP — we’re dealing with a party here that has morphed into a cult, and whose self-proclaimed ‘idea man’ is still Dan Quayle. Then and now it is difficult not to agree with his own assessment. The clown show is going to be really interesting in 2016. GWB was at least smart enough to know he was stupid and that he got where he was because of his daddy and some help from James Baker; he knew how to follow instructions even if he can’t read them. No such saving grace exists among the likes of Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, Sara Palin, Michele Bachmann, Gingrich, Cruz or Perry, and certainly not for Romney, in the unlikely event he were to run again, an arrogantly stupid and willfully ignorant group if there ever was one. (I sometimes suspected the GOP leadership proposed Romney not just to avoid choosing one of these others but to get rid of Romney once and for all, to have him out of the way in 2016 when the GOP thinks it has a better shot at recovering the White House.) Barbara Bush is surely the Ma Barker of american politics, because it looks to me as though Jeb will have an early lead and cross the finish line for the Republican nomination largely unopposed. They have no serious female candidate to run against Hillary, and this time even the Republicans want real change. (No big donor is going to contribute to Palin knowing she could resign and blow the investment.) If he were any smarter than the rest of his clan, a good move would be for Jeb to switch parties, now, and to run on a ticket WITH Hillary, and simply leave behind the GOP, allowing it to merge with Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey, neutralizing the religious zealots by forcing them to form their own party and duke it out among themselves while the rest of us discuss serious matters for a once in our lifetimes.