Romney On Brokered Convention: A Huge Gift To Obama

Appearing on Fox News Monday afternoon, Mitt Romney sounded the alarm -- a bit louder than before -- about the prospects of a brokered convention and the damage that he thinks it would cause his candidacy.

"I mean, everybody has a scenario where they can become the nominee. That is fine. But that is why we have a primary process," Romney told Neil Cavuto. "And, so far, we have got, I don't know, two, two-and-a-half times as many delegates as [Rick Santorum] has and millions of more votes than he has. And, you know, that is the nature of political process. If he is able to pull off a miracle, so be it, he will be the nominee."

"But we have a selection process," Romney added. "We are in the middle of it. I am leading it strongly. I'm going to continue to lead it. And you are going to see me getting the delegates I need to become the nominee. And we sure as heck are not going to go to a convention, all the way to the end of August, to select a nominee and have campaign working during a convention. Why, can you imagine anything that would be a bigger gift to Barack Obama than us not having a nominee until the end of August? That is just not going to happen."

Not withstanding former RNC Chairman Michael Steele's belief that a contested convention would be good for the party, this argument by Romney is the widely held viewpoint of most of the GOP establishment.

Prior to Super Tuesday, the former Massachusetts governor treated the idea of Rick Santorum staying in the race through August as a far-fetched, if not mild, nuisance -- certainly something that was unlikely to materialize. The tone of the Fox News interview suggests that he and his advisers aren't finding the idea so immaterial anymore.

Comments

[O4US]

10:40 PM on 03/16/2012

Mitt doesn't know how many delegates he has in relation to his competition? I would think he would be taking this process more seriously.

[James Farner]

08:12 AM on 03/14/2012

Romney's top campaign contributor 2012: Goldman Sachs. Obama's top campaign contributor 2008: Goldman Sachs. Do you really think anything is going to change by voting for either of those two?

[Joffan]

04:34 PM on 03/13/2012

So, Mitt, are you going to drop out and form your own party? Or are you going to suck up the rules of the party you're in and just get on with it?

[Protect Our Freedoms]

02:02 PM on 03/13/2012

I wonder if Mr. Romney knows that a brokered convention is part of the process if someone doesn't win a majority of the delegates. So when he is out there talking about the process he might do well to remember that.

As far as how it will effect the race that is to be seen. If this primary has shown us anything, other then GOP members don't like the field, it is that anything can, and has, happened. Historically a brokered convention is bad for that party but who knows. Congress approval rating at a all time low, Obama with less then 50% approval but still beating the GOP field in many polls.

If the GOP can stick to the economy and stay away from these social conservative issues they will stand a much better chance. When are they going to learn that when it comes to someone else's body or lifestyle trying to stop people from living their lives the way they want to is a losing proposition.

I consider myself fiscally conservative and in my own personal life I'm socially conservative but I still don't want a government that is going to tell me, or anyone else, how we should live.

[duckpuddle]

01:22 PM on 03/13/2012

Romney himself is a pretty big gift to Obama, though a brokered convention would be cool too.

[lalena48]

08:30 PM on 03/13/2012

I agree duckpuddle. My fave line from the article "I Need to be the Nominee". That sums it up.

[tploomis]

01:04 PM on 03/13/2012

A brokered Republican convention means the Republicans will pick a presidential candidate who has not spent the past year making a fool of himself. He or she will just have two and a half months to do so.

[traceymarie]

07:11 PM on 03/13/2012

tundratart will jump in if it turns up to be no one has the delegates

[margoharris]

12:48 PM on 03/13/2012

President Obama was naive. He thought that the geeopee loved this country more than they hated him.
Seems they have contempt for us all.

[Kalikat]

12:46 PM on 03/13/2012

Yeah cause he knows he wouldn't get the nomination. And he wants to quash his competion leaving him the last clown standing.

[mybostonjack]

12:04 PM on 03/13/2012

Willard fails (once again), to realize that he and the other looney GOTP candidates are a gift unto themselves. A brokered convention is just the icing on the cake. Yes, Obama can have his cake and eat it too.

[calloy]

11:56 AM on 03/13/2012

the biggest gift to obama is mitt, himself. you're never going to be president if your own party can't stand the sight of you.

[margoharris]

12:35 PM on 03/13/2012

They are making the geeopee electorate eat their peas. LOL

[Bumper Press]

11:54 AM on 03/13/2012

Presidential Candidates as Star Trek Alien Races

Ron Paul is a Drayan. They live by a code of laws called a Constitution. Drayans have little to no contact with outside races. They have a very closed society, due to their species unique attribute of aging. They are born looking as if they are elderly, around the human age of 100. From there, they age backwards, growing younger in body as they grow older in wisdom and experience. The process of their death is uncertain but they leave no bodies, only a pile of clothing.

Barack Obama is a Klingon. Klingons were darkly colored humanoids with little honor. Overall, they were shown without redeeming qualities—brutish, scheming, and murderous. Their society is based on war and combat. The Klingons perform no burial rites, and dispose of corpses by the most efficient means. -BumperPress.com

[margoharris]

12:37 PM on 03/13/2012

Not even worth that nickle you collected.

[Bumper Press]

12:53 PM on 03/13/2012

It's a 1919 D Buffalo nickle. Worth about $500 mint.

[Bobbi2012]

12:57 PM on 03/13/2012

What are you talking about?

[Bumper Press]

01:58 PM on 03/13/2012

Obama.

[traceymarie]

07:14 PM on 03/13/2012

gamer and movie buff who has left reality...throw in a bit of bigot and there it is

[Sim0n Gomez]

11:45 AM on 03/13/2012

No Mitt. It would be a gift to America. A needless one I must ad. We can take care of ourselves. Brokered convention or not we will reelected Barack Obama and you will go on to "occupy" the footnote of presidential history fate has reserved just for you . . .

[dgtsakos]

11:35 AM on 03/13/2012

you teabaggers had better fall in line as your masters, the party bosses, command. enough of this rebelliousness. you are waging war against your own ruling class. vote mitt and lose a close election. you shouldn't stand on principle, because you will change them in two years, anyway.

[larrystenli]

12:09 PM on 03/13/2012

I was in an antique store the other day and there was a political button with the slogan "change" it was from the carter/ mondale race funny how things change but stay the same

[duckpuddle]

01:28 PM on 03/13/2012

Yea, really, like I can't thing of a thing that has happened since 1976.

[dgtsakos]

09:44 PM on 03/13/2012

clinton mentioned change and the courage to change several times in the 1992 debates.maybe there is nothing new under the sun.

[be practical]

11:25 AM on 03/13/2012

I love to watch Mittie squirm. It almost makes me want ot go out and campaign for Rickie for a couple of months. Nothing like h8te and discontent within the GOPTea. Precious indeed.


Obama 2012

[SparrFlorida]

11:11 AM on 03/13/2012

As a Republican, I say so what, bring on the brokered convention and don't let this out of touch eccentric ego get his spoiled way. Mitt Romney is not good for America because he will sell it to the top 1% in the name of "recovery." Also, remember this, their wealth is tied up overseas, umm.

[kalemakapii]

11:26 AM on 03/13/2012

Am curious, who do you want to become the Republican nominee?