COMMENTARY | This week, the Associated Press is reporting that Rick Santorum is calling for all Republicans to endorse Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, saying that “above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated.”
Many of my Republican friends agree with Santorum and say that Ron Paul should drop out of the race since Romney has all but wrapped up the nomination, delegates in Maine and Nevada beg to differ, as the CS Monitor reports that Paul actually won the majority of delegates in those two states. While Paul may be down for the count, he’s certainly not out of the race.
With these wins, it appears that the efforts of Paul’s extensive grassroots organization that has been winning the delegate selections is paying off, and due to obscure delegate rules, it is certainly possible that Paul will win enough delegates to the GOP convention in Florida to turn the convention floor into chaos and possibly win the nomination, even though, according to reports in the national Journal, Paul has reported stated that he does not wish to disrupt the convention..
While two wins is hardly enough to catch up to Romney’s big delegate lead, due to those troublesome arcane delegate selection rules, Romney many not actually have as many delegates as it seems. Romney may have won the overall popular vote in many states, but the delegate rules in some instances mean that individual caucuses needed to be won, so it is possible for a candidate to win the overall popular vote for a state, but not the caucuses that determine the selection of delegates.
The Huffington Post is claiming that Paul has won the delegates in Iowa and a Press Release from Paul’s campaign website now claims that he has won the delegates in Louisiana. If this is indeed true, then it follows that states once considered squarely in Romney’s corner may not be when it comes time to count the delegates.
As Al Gore found out when he won the over-all popular vote but lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush, Romney may be in for a big surprise at the convention. Just as the President is determined by the votes of the Electoral College rather than the overall popular vote, nominees are chosen by the vote of delegates. Whether or not Paul pulls an upset win over Romney for the nomination, one thing is for certain, the GOP has no hope of using the convention to present a unified front to defeat President Obama, and that’s just the way the Democrats like it.
