Weak GOP Field: Brokered Convention?

09 December 2011 |permalink | email article

SATURDAY night’s ABC News-Yahoo! News-Des Moines Register-WOI-Iowa Republican Party debate at Drake University in Des Moines promises to outdo the 11 prior televised forums for one reason: Newt Gingrich surges ahead in the polls and hopes to solidify his frontrunner status while Mitt Romney, the longtime leader, seeks to regain his footing as the two alpha dogs stand side-by-side on center stage. Gingrich won’t get a free pass again; Romney has a strong incentive to draw a sharp contrast now that Gingrich is pulling away. Switch Reels—Erick Erickson, who writes the widely read RedState conservative blog, has serious concerns about the viable of the current GOP field—the failure of the political press to get the stories right and the failure of the political consultant class to get the candidates right—are not written about enough. “And both impact the horse race for 2012. And the muddied stories of both these problems may interweave directly to a brokered convention. I think it is time to move beyond wishful thinking and take seriously the idea of having a brokered convention with someone other than the current crop of candidates becoming the nominee.”

Imperial Demands

There’s word from the North Pole that Santa’s elves are scrambling to find a big enough crown to place on the head of Newt Gingrich, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. The Body Politic spoof notes a Washington Post report reprising the candidate’s penchant for luxury jets and Tiffany & Co. jewelry and demand for top-notch accommodations when he travels for $60,000 speaking engagements. That includes “first-class expenses,” including the hotel of Gingrich’s choice, and first-class airfare. The contract, according to The Smoking Gun, also requires a “non-smoking” one-bedroom suite (preferably with two bathrooms.) There are other new concerns emerging about Gingrich’s aggressively pedaling of books while running for president. Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager, said McCain never sold books while campaigning but “we live in a new age when where Gingrich’s sales efforts are consistent with how he leveraged his political capital to start businesses after quitting the House.”

Quotable

President Obama: “Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top Al-Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement…or whoever’s left out there.”—Josh Marshall,Talking Points Memo, on Obama’s rapid fire push back on the appeasement charge.

“We know the debate is Newt vs. Mitt, but [what] we don’t know is which Newt and which Mitt.”—Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.

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