Brokered Convention?

A blog over at RedState poses that none of the Republican candidates will be able to put together enough delegates to win the nomination outright. I don't know if his math is right or not, but I think it is clear that right now we have five candidates who have no intention of getting out soon--and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I would give the prospect of a brokered convention better than a 50% chance.

More significantly, I think it is probable that no candidate has a significant PLURALITY of delegates. We could be in store for the most wide open convention, possibly ever. As a result, every state will be critically important--maybe the later states will have more significance than the earlier states. Maybe that will make states like our own Indiana from being quite so whiny that they do not have enough effect.

So what happens at the convention. Someone will have to put together a coalition to get to a majority. My hope is that Fred will have enough delegates to be able to broker himself to the nomination. He has the advantage that he does appeal to the entire spectrum of the Republican coalition. For instance, Romney supporters would support Fred, but not McCain. Rudy supporters could support Fred, but not Romney. Even Huckabee supporters could support Fred, but not Rudy. Fred is the "universal receiver"--but not the universal donor.