If they end up with a brokered Convention we may end up having to battle Christy or Rubio instead of Romney.

The best scenario is Romney getting the nomination after a bloody battle that leaves him easily beatable.

A Santorum win probably means a brokered Convention and a much tougher foe in the General.

A brokered convention is NOT going to result in a "White Knight" candidate, because the fact that the Nominating process has failed is going to scare away the very same White Knights who will aspire to run on their own in 2016 and won't want to take a fall for the GOP in 2012. A broker Convention will be an admission of failure and whomever ends up getting nominated will be damaged goods with little time to gain the support (and financial backing) of those favoring which ever candidates DIDN'T win.

that the current crop of losers have been dragging out of each other's closets, and thus may be able to win support from a relieved base.

Remember, the rushpublican convention is in August...less than three months from election day. Whomever is the nominee will have to have a full-blown national campaign in place the day after...there's precious little time to build a team unless one's already in place (at the cost of one of the losing candidates). Not gonna happen...thus a brokered convention would be nothing more than the buying and selling of delegates until one of the current clowns out buys the other. Whomever wins leaves the convention with a bitterly divided party.

It's so telling that when you ask a "conservative" who their dream candidate is, they don't come up with a name other than some reincarnation of St. Raygun....

That leaves exactly 67 days until the election. Not a lot of time to get things ready - to produce a ground game and a solid organization in the more important states.

Bush, the little pinhead in Minnesota all they want, but unless the economy implodes or there is some kind of major national security problem, no of these people are going to show up two months out and beat BO - an incumbent who people like.

Any of the people we might not want to face from a brokered convention would also never want to run from one either. They will all wait til 2016

Jeb needs time for the bad name to fade a little more.

There is a timeline as to when you have to put your name on the ballots in all state. Even if one of those guys wanted to run and Rubio has no experience to really run and Christie's gusto is very limited---it's unlikely they would ever come around just because of the ballot listings. Even Obama's name was under question for one state.

They think these guys are so strong, but they aren't. Jeb isn't either. A brokered convention is not a god send to the GOP it shows how pitifiul they are and the lack of strong candidates. Then you have the party turning to one of the people who didn't even run? How do you think many supporters of Romney, Santorum and even Gingrich will feel?

I know I've stopped. Will a loss in Michigan signal the 'collapse' of Romney's campaign? Maybe. But maybe not. I doubt anyone knows for sure. Certainly there isn't anyone out there that I know of that has accurately predicted the ups and downs of the GOP primary process.

A loss in Michigan won't change a thing. This nomination battle is going to the very bitter end and losing or winning Michigan doesn't change the outlook much for Romney.

If the republicans hadn't governed like such complete assholes I would (almost) feel sorry about R-Money's soon to be buckshot neutering. Even with an embassingly wounded candidate, the powers that be will keep R-Money alive to minimize the damage to the down ticket candidates.

Its been said they he had a huge lead in those who have already cast their ballots. I hope Dems come out and support Satantorum today.

Think of it as a disaster filled with opportunity. It would be a bit like bankruptcy. It will be destructive, but Romney may also see the opportunity to restructure. It's not like Santorum will have some insurmountable lead, and the Romney folks may just figure "it's a whole new race". He'll have some encouragement too from those moderate GOP forces who don't want to see a Santorum race in the general. They may not care by then if Romney wins, just that Santorum isn't the top of the ticket.

It will be the end of his "inevitable" approach to campaigning, or the "most electable" slogan. But it could merely start a new slogan of "I'm the sane one".

And his margin (like in other states this time around) will be well below what it was in 2008.

I think we want Romney to be the nominee but Santorum to do just well enough to keep the clown show going for awhile longer to force Mittens further right and to make even more dumb statements to give us lots of stuff for ads down the road.