GOP Nomination May Have to Wait for Convention

Photo from source, Yahoo! News

There is something satisfying, and also amusing about the current state of affairs in the GOP, and its quest for a standard bearer. This is a party that started the new millennium tightly scripted. Even 9/11, an event that should have torn up that script, instead ended up interwoven into every storyline. All seemingly went according to plan, and if it didn't, was neatly tied up and put to rest with talking points.

Nothing could be said or done that couldn't be rewritten to fit their narrative. 9/11 turned out to be something of a MacGuffin; a necessary plot device. Scriptmaster Karl Rove was absolutely brazen in his efforts to rewrite history--creating his own reality--and the press mostly played along. What's frightening is that George W. Bush and his administration was their endgame, the last chapter, the final reel. And it's been a disaster. The plot holes are finally obvious to a majority of the public.

And now the party is flailing like the current TV producers who are missing their writers. They have an improbable cast of characters, each with huge flaws. Their carefully honed audience of fiscal and social conservatives is tuning out, and turning on each other. None of the cast of characters is appealing to everybody, or sometimes (Rudy Giulini, Duncan Hunter) much of anybody. It's like they're trying to make a sequel to a story that has come to its obvious conclusion.

If they want the GOP brand to be viable, perhaps they need to follow the current Hollywood trend: a total reboot of the franchise. This is going to take more than recasting.

OK, now that I've beaten that metaphor to a bloody pulp, here is the story that inspired it.

[Excerpt]

Republicans ponder deadlocked convention

The Republican presidential race is so unsettled that some party officials are openly talking of a scenario that seemed almost unthinkable until now: the first contested GOP convention in 60 years.

Even if Republicans choose a nominee before they convene in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 1, there's a good possibility he will emerge weeks or even months after the Democratic nominee is chosen, giving Democrats an advantage in fundraising, organizing and campaigning. . .

Read more at: Yahoo! News