A “prominent Republican senator”says that he will call for a new candidate to join the GOP race if Romney loses Michigan. He figures that Santorum and Newt would both lose 35 states. His choice would be Jeb Bush.
Many analysts think that this is preposterous scenario–the deadline would have passed to enter many states, etc. But it’s not so much preposterous as it is merely entirely possible, yet suicidal all the same. The national committees of the two parties can basically do anything they want to do. If there are rules and bylaws which prohibit various actions by contending candidates, the committees can simply change their own rules. If enough people on the committee–or with influence on those on the committee–want to create a set of procedures which would lead to the nomination of Jeb Bush (or Haley Barbour or Mitch Daniels or Paul Ryan or anybody), they can do so.
But, of course, under such a chaotic scenario, the white knight candidate would be destroyed by Obama in November. The current candidates and their supporters would be enraged, and the newly crowned candidate would obviously benefit from a rigged system designed–like Bush v. Gore–solely for his one time use. It would make the 1968 Democratic Convention in riot torn Chicago look like a chess tournament.
Recall that some Democrats imagined a similar possibility in 2008. Not a new candidate entering the race, but Hillary Clinton winning the nomination via various last minute rules changes, and the support of the majority of super delegates. Of course, however, the first African American major party presumptive nominee could not somehow be screwed out of the top spot at the last minute without tearing the party apart. A Pyrrhic victory, as it used to be called during the original Greek crisis.
So sure, Republicans: nominate Jeb Bush or Chris Christie or Genghis Khan. But even for a party with the blood lust to cheer executions, that will pour a bit too much blood on the floor to readily clean up.
