The RNC officials arenât the crew rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, they are the ship band playing âNearer My God To Theeâ as the ship goes down.
In fairness, the probability of a contested convention just went way up. Its pretty damn near assured right now.
Cruz canât win the necessary delegates to win outright, but its extremely doubtful that Trump can either. He has not posted a single win anywhere with a margin over 50%, and Cruz has been racking up quite a few recently. The momentum is definitely on Cruzâs side, and has a far more organized campaign and delegate outreach program underway.
But whoâs going to be the fresh-faced white knight whoâs going to rush in and save the party from itself? It wonât be Perry, Ryan says heâs not interested, Mitt?
Ryan is basically humblebragging. Its the same tactic he took for the House. He publicly decries wanting the nomination, while working every angle he can behind close doors. Because, quite frankly, thatâs the only way that anyone can get the nod in that sort of inplausable scenario.
Anyone saying they want the nod is immediately disqualified as being tainted by personal ambition, when the party needs someone to unite it. In many ways its precisely the same situation regarding the Speaker position.
And remember, he gave a list of demands he wanted met before he would accept that job. And every one of them was denied. Yet he still took it. That says volumes.
I donât see that scenario as very likely however. If Trump canât get it on the first vote, the party will start rallying around Cruz, who at the very least, has shown savvy in how to woo party people to in the actual delegate selection process. That will be enough for them to hold their noses and get behind him.
If not, and assuming the delegates remove Rule 40, which prevents anyone without 8 wins from being nominated, than I guess anything is plausible.
But no matter which scenario pans out, they are going to be facing huge defectionsâŚeither crossing the line for Hillary are staying at home. What gets missed with all the focus on the school yard anticsâŚis none of them is lifting a finger to reach out to anyone elseâs voters. Trump is pissing on everyone who doesnât support him, Cruz is attacking Trump,which only makes his supporters hate Cruz more, Kasich is starting to sound like Rodney King asking why cant we all just get along?..and that NEVER works with the GOP, and all the non candidates are figuring out how to piss off both the Trump AND Cruz camps by stealing it away from both.
Ryanâs faux âreluctant heroâ cosplay isnât going to be even close to enough to solve those rifts.
And the meltdown begins in earnest.
When will they agree to bring out the dancing bears?
They already have the clowns.
Mitt, a fresh face? Mitt of the Living Dead?
âMore than two dozen âveteran GOP operativesâ attended the meeting.â
Was G. Gordon Liddy present?
With a pencil?
âŚoverheardâŚ
ââŚboy, are we fucked!..â
Davey, can you foresee a scenario of an âAxis of Evilâ grand coalition, where Trump and Cruz forge a deal to run on the same ticket? They have the advantage of over 50% of the delegates.
I did some time ago, I donât today. Trumpâs personal attacks on Cruz pretty much took that idea off the table. I also donât think Cruz would want to be part of a Trump administrationâŚit would be a disaster, plagued by scandals and unbelievable levels of incompetence. I honestly believe that there would be a better than 50% chance that Trump as President ends up as Trump Impeached and the first President removed from office. No politician wants to be within 100 miles of that.
Cruz has the wind at his back right now, and is MUCH more organized for the delegate fight at the conventionâŚfrom his perspective, as long as Trump doesnât get the majority of delegates before the convention, he can lock up the nomination in the second or third round of voting. And he probably isnât too far off in that assumption.
Of course, the bigger problem for Cruz will be how to unite the party. And I donât think anybody has a good answer for that one.