If McCain were to drop out of the race, what would happen to the Republic party?

[madinmaryland]

Would they have another convention to try and nominate someone else? And who would that be? Huckabee (maybe), Romney(maybe), Palin (probably not).

:shrug:


THIS IS A HYPOTHETICAL ONLY. I am in no way saying that I have ANY knowledge of McCain dropping out.

I just want to ponder this.

[Bluebear]

1. PALIN HUCKABEE 08 - a Rapturepalooza!

[madinmaryland]

5. What about Romney?

[Bluebear]

6. I don't think the extreme religious right likes Mormons

[bryant69]

12. You could be right - but she's a westerner

They seem more comfortable with Mormons than Southern religious rightists.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[AlCzervik]

9. The fire breathing rapturists don't like Romney because he's a mormon.

my neighbor thinks mormons and scientologists are the same thing.

[cliffordu]

13. LOL. Perfect!!

[bmbmd]

2. You can bet your arse

they wouldn't run Palin.

[iceman66]

10. Oh yes they would.

[Lex]

3. They'd put Palin in his place and worship her as a Diety?

:shrug:

[GoesTo11]

33. That could force people to think about what she really is

not just what she symbolizes in the soap operas of their lives. If you think about her being president, it is very scary. People talk about the 1980 election where Reagan had to get people to be comfortable that he wouldn't start WWIII. Palin is a person who could do any crazy thing. If something forces moderates to consider realistically the possibility of her being president, I think they'd run away. So far, many people have just thought of her as this nice VP while McCain is the president, and they don't think seriously about what it would be like if he had to step down.

[RobertSeattle]

4. I cringe at typing this... Jed Bush

[madinmaryland]

20. Egads! I had forgotten about him. Probably not likely this year though.

[StarryNite]

7. Republic party! LOL

I love it! What's good for the goose...

[monmouth]

8. I was wondering the same thing. Common sense would dictate

that the deep pocket repugs would never consider palin for that role, I don't care whether she's loved by the rw nut jobs or not. I would think who ever had the highest number (I forget, sorry) behind McCain (Romney?) would be the one. I would imagine if we could find the Repug playbook we could find out. If I get a chance I may just see if I can find out what rules apply.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. They'd rally around MooseDroppings and give her a MooseCrown.

[MattP]

14. I looked it up, the RNC picks the nominee

http://www.gop.com/About/Rules6-10.htm The RNC picks the nominee, this is part of rule 9 below,


"only the Republican National Committee is authorized to fill "any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise" for the presidential candidate. The committee re-assembles. According to rule 8-B, they must give five days notice for this meeting. Committee members "representing any state shall be entitled to cast the same number of votes as said state was entitled to cast at the national convention." They continue until a new candidate is chosen with a majority of votes. "

[renate]

19. that's a little scary...

I'd assumed that Palin would become the nominee.

Republicans like Limbaugh and the people on, or who watch, FOX never liked McCain to start with--they're only falling in line now because they had to. What if they chose Huckabee or Romney? (I don't think they'd choose Jeb Bush, hampered as he by that pesky last name.) Those two don't seem batshit crazy... Palin would be fairly easy to beat once she got out in public, but those two guys can talk without a script.

I hope this isn't a "be careful what you wish for" moment. :scared:

[madinmaryland]

23. I don't think they could ever risk running Palin this year. I think they

might actually splinter into two or three factions.

[yardwork]

25. TaliPalin was nominated to be the VP. Unless she's elected, she doesn't automatically get pres.

The RNC would have to choose a new presidential nominee. I guess they could choose a new VP as well. There would be a LOT of in-fighting. The Republicans would be in disarray. They might even ditch Palin as VP which would infuriate her fundy base.

My guess is that they won't do it. They'll keep McCain no matter what and try to steal the election again.

[Contrary1]

15. No Constitutional guidance

"First of all, the Constitution is silent on this issue -- for that matter, it's silent on anything to do with political parties at all. So there's no Constitutional guidance at all.

Second, this HAS happened, or pretty close, in 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. He was killed in June after winning the California (and numerous other) primaries; the convention was in August. RFK would presumably have been the nominee had he not been killed.

I'm not too sure what his delegates at the convention did, but the Democrats picked Hubert Humphrey as the candidate. It was a turbulent convention, for all sorts of reasons, but RFK's death was part of the reason.

To answer the question, I assume it's entirely up to the party who has lost a candidate to decide what to do. It would seem polite to have the candidate who came in second in the primaries (McCain or Bradley) take over, but more likely there would be a special convention to choose a new candidate.

To be further polite, I would hope that the elections got postponed from November, to allow a fair race. The Constitution doesn't mandate November elections, so I guess that would be determined by Congress. But the surviving (opposing) candidate would prefer a quick election that he was pretty assured of winning, so who knows what Congress would do.

The other situation where this almost happened was with Pres. William Henry Harrison in 1841. He got ill immediately upon taking office (some say it was at his inauguration itself) and died 3 months later. His V.P., John Tyler, took over. Harrison was the first president to die in office.

Perhaps the best story in this morbid catalogue is that of Tancredo Neves, president-elect of Brazil in 1985. He got ill and died after getting elected and before taking office, His dying words were reportedly "I did not deserve this."

http://www.ontheissues.org/AskMe/succession.htm

[Hawkowl]

16. Chaos and disintegration

Think back what happened to Humphrey when Eagleton was forced to drop out in '72. He was forced out for mental health reason. Parallel? We shall see.

[madinmaryland]

27. I'd love to see them splinter up!

[sharesunited]

29. McGovern you mean.

[madinmaryland]

31. I'm not sure if he/she is referring to 68 or 72. Both conventions were

in chaos. Not sure which was one was more chaotic. My pick would be 68.

[Chan790]

17. As per their party rules...

they'd have to have another convention with the exact same delegates and nominate someone new.

Basically, you'd have every prominent GOPer in America kissing the asses of the former McCain delegates to win their votes over. It'd be anarchy and it'd likely destroy the GOP at all levels (local, state and national) for the 2008 election unless a brokered solution was arranged immediately. I'd guess that it has been though...at least in the back-rooms.

[Ganja Ninja]

18. They would likely turn fascist.

That would be a left turn for them.

[jakem]

21. romney.

[Warpy]

22. They'd vote for the idiot.

Remember, they've done it before. Repeatedly.

[madinmaryland]

24. Which one?

[VWolf]

26. The republican

Do you really think it matters to them which one?

:rofl:

[Liberal In Texas]

28. Game over. The party would be is such disarray they would never

be able to recover in less than 2 months. I imagine a lot of repubs would stay home on election day.

[madinmaryland]

30. I'd love to see that happen!!1!!

[Tektonik]

32. amendment to allow Ahnuld!

[madinmaryland]

34. That's one thing we don't have to worry about!