Tom Brokaw on Chris Christie: Brokered Convention

We're three months ahead (0.00 / 0)

Said that a while ago.  Sheesh.

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by: huntsu @ Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 00:31:48 AM UTC

Ridiculous of the Meet the Press roundtable (0.00 / 0)

...to think there's anything but a longshot change of an open Republican convention.  The way things are going now, it could be just the opposite - Romney could emerge as the earliest presumptive nominee in history.  If he wins Iowa or even comes in a strong second, the media will play that as a win.  He could then wins New Hampshire obscenely big.  Then, seeing an opportunity to wrap it all up in South Carolina, not a natural state for him with its very far-right Republican electorate, Romney would spend millions there and actually win the primary and become the presumptive nominee.  In January, yet.  Regarding Chris Christie, if Romney is the nominee that early, I see the possibility of his naming his running very early to have two presumptive nominees attacking Obama - and that nominee could be Christie, whose geography, I believe, helps him in the way Clinton doubled down on the South with Gore.  

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by: Steven Goldstein, Garden State Equality chair @ Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 01:46:09 AM UTC

it makes for good television (0.00 / 0)

There is no doubt in my mind that in the same way that Faux News and MSNBC have their talking points, the rest of the media have their own as well and they probably figure that the more they talk up the idea of Chris Christie or Jeb Bush or some other idealized Republican nominee winning a brokered convention, the less likely it is that Republican primary election voters, who are anything but in love with Romney, will bite the bullet and settle on him.

I don't think that they are doing this because they like Christie or Bush or anyone else more than Romney as much as they know that the longer the Republican nominating contest goes on, including but not limited to the national convention, the more attention their coverage of the process will get.

The last thing that the media wants is an early nomination followed by almost a year of Obama v. Romney.  The nation will tune out well before the conventions and they will have the worst ratings in the history of convention coverage, compared to the high ratings that they got in 2008.  It is also possible that the Romney campaign sees some degree of risk in winning the nomination too soon and the electorate tuning out, especially considering how boring of a candidate he is.  They have an extremely difficult needle to thread insofar as they want to win early without losing the attention of the electorate.

Thus, if there is anything that the media can do to extend this process as long as possible, they will do this.  I think that even the people at Faux News would agree with this.  Plus, it is not intellectually dishonest to say that the new delegate selection rules that have done away with winner-take-all elections increases the possibility of a brokered convention, particularly considering the lackluster field of Republican candidates.

It is also not intellectually dishonest to talk up the possibility of a Ron Paul 3rd party/Libertarian Party candidacy or Americans Elect producing a 4th Presidential candidate who could be on the ballot in every state in the country.  And nobody has started talking about the likelihood of yet another Ralph Nader candidacy, bringing the total of potential national candidates to 5.

As far as Christie becoming the VP, I think that if Romney is the Republican nominee, he will go further right for a VP.  I think that Marco Rubio is the most likely choice, even with all of the questions about the story of his parents coming here.  After him, it could be Michelle Bachmann or Rick Santorum.  If either/both of them leave the race early and endorse Romney, it will definitely help their chances.  I am not saying that it won't be Christie.  I just don't think that it is as automatic a pick as some.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 02:20:47 AM UTC

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I watched too. (0.00 / 0)

that part i missed.  took the dog out.  listen, when christie endorsed romney that brokered convention scenario went out the window.  the gingrich phenom forced everybody's hand.

did catch that panel talk about the need for solutions that were "to scale" with the nations problems.  on that score stein for congress 2012 delivers,
http://www.bluejersey.com/show...

"the black sheep can wear the golden fleece and hold a winning hand" Tim Hardin

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by: gary stein @ Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 02:25:08 AM UTC

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