has anyone started passing out envelopes filled with cash yet?
Gestapo goons knocking on doors in the dead of night?
Hookers and Hookettes?
fishbowls of free ammo?
Donât forget about the implied threats of violence against the delegates suggested by King of the Ratf*ckers. That would make it less of a vaca than in years past.
From the NY Times story:
Experts on the nominating rules said that restrictions on what delegates
can accept vary by state but are generally quite permissive. For
instance, nothing prevented President Gerald R. Ford from using flights
aboard Air Force One to charm delegates in 1976.
OK, did he actually do that, or is this just making the point that delegates could sell their votes any way they wanted? Cuz even if delegate rules didnât prevent that, it seems that some sort of election rule would have prevented Ford from doing it. But maybe not in freewheelinâ 1976.
Imagine going through this square dance of emotional and logistical chaos only to have your efforts destroyed by the woman you have been campaigning against for twenty years.
Oh, and self-immolating your once-proud institution at the same time.
Thanks to the GOP, we have an uneducated angry mob of voters who also happen to have easy access to firearms.
What could possibly go wrong?
Hunter S, Thompson had a nice piece about âIndependent Delegatesâ in âFear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72â, worth readingâŚ
What will hit them in Cleveland?
Iâm hoping Democracyâyou know the idea that anyone, no matter their skin color, has the opportunity to vote.
Iâm also hoping truthâyou know the idea that a free press will actually report the racist, homophobic, misogynistic values the GOP represents.
And finally, Iâm hoping for a giant lightening bolt from God.
All of these may be wishful thinking, but if I had to bet, Iâd go with the lightning.
Iâm trying to imagine the kind of person wanting to be in a picture with Ted Cruz. If that person is not among the 1%, then he is either a sadist or a masochist.
lol⌠Hunter Thompson is one of my favorite authors⌠
I can imagine thatâitâs the kind of person whose approach to politics is to ask whoâs the most âseverely,â letâs say, conservative candidate in a given election and then vote for that person. It keeps the need to think to a minimum and itâs why the GOP has been doubling down all these yearsâit became a kind of exponential curve of increasing severity.
I hope the looming chaos finally, finally drives the dim perception into the brain of the average citizen that the damn parties are different. I was happy-houring with severely progressive friends last night, Buddhists and Quakers and such, and they talked about SCOTUS and the âSenate.â I had to say through my teeth âItâs the Republicans in the Senate that are creating the problemâŚâ and they said oh yeah yeah sure thatâs what we meant of course. But that wasnât their first thought. GrrrrrrrrrâŚ
âThis time around, it is unclear how the Cruz or Trump campaigns would attempt to influence delegates.â
Just how many Romanian gymnasts, pounds of cocaine and unmarked hundred dollar bills can you cram on a 747?
The GOP has run losing tickets before, even if they dominated the precedency from 1860 well into the modern era. It would take something close to a miracle to pull out of the current tailspin before the franchise hits the ground. To push the analogy a bit, recall McCain and Bush Sr. both flew in combat, and W had some pilot training. If this holds, Martha McSally, a young rep from Arizona and once the highest ranking female pilot in the US military, might at minimum show up on the GOP ticket. Crazy about charter schools, familiar with Middle East and amenable to single payer health care, a position to the left of Clinton and about the same as Bernie. On fiscal issues otherwise most of the same blather as her colleagues, which is why she might pair well with a pure blather type like Ryan or an outside CEO with actual business experience like Tim Leiweke, even if he is a pet of Philip Anschutz. Most Americans canât see the difference between a guy like Leiweke, who probably scrapes by on a few hundred million a year, and a ârealâ billionaire like Trump. And for the real powers behind the throne, such candidates would reduce the uncertainty that is causing so much fudge loss in the donor class.
I wonder how many will refuse to show out of fear for their well being. Imagine if a few donât show up and the RNC or a few of the candidates henchman have to go to their homes for their votes.
I predict the convention will nominate Chuck Todd as their presidential candidate and he will pick Megyn Kelly for his running-mate. I also predict that they would get more votes than any of the Republican politicians they might nominate.
So the GOP convention is going to look a lot like the capture scene from Planet Of The Apes.
âI probably spend 40 to 50 hours a week on this project.
I do a lot of reading and a lot of research,â said Curly Haugland,
a delegate and national committeeman from North Dakota.
~snip~
Vogler said one of the biggest complications for him
is that the convention rules are only selected the week
before the convention, giving him and others little time.
One spends 40 to 50 hours per week preparing for something that has not yet been determined.
Another determines that ignorance is all but assured.
Unless and until Reaganâs corpse rises on-stage to direct delegate voting?
The RNC is gonnaâ be a 3-day televised miniseries rivaling Fargo for comic cold-bloodiness.
jw1
This would entirely solve our energy crisis, providing sufficient hot air to not just run our economy, but power the entire planet.
âI donât know what to totally expect,â said Mary Beth DoughertyâŚ
âWe are in all new unchartered grounds,â said Holland Redfield, a delegate âŚ
âI would not say I am overwhelmed, but I find it is going to be very, very interesting," said Christopher VoglerâŚ
Forget culture wars. The Republicans have declared war on the English language.
Hey Republican Boys And Girls! Can You say "Weâre going to break the New York 1924 record and go over 103 ballots???