Just when you thought the GOP primary was the greatest shit show you'd ever witnessed and couldn't be topped...
I can see Jesse Ventura now making a run at the White House. I mean why not add a former wrestler to the mix? Anything can happen.
Can anyone throw down a breakdown of why Mitt Romney adds to the shit-show? Against Obama the choice was clear (at the time) but isn't anyone who runs against Trump a good thing for the GOP?
Once upon a time, the Democratic party nominated whoever they wanted to be president by popular vote. Then they had a very bad year. The Tet Offensive handed the US our ass in Vietnam, MLK was shot by a racist, the sitting (democratic) president LBJ was so unpopular he decided not to run and worst of all, Robert Kennedy, the presumed frontrunner, had been shot dead in a hotel kitchen. Throw in some riots and some political unrest and lo and behold, the majority of your Democratic candidates were anti-war. But because Kennedy's delegates were uncommitted, and because conventions are not elections, the establishment rallied around Hubert Humphrey, which was such a shitshow that American Racist George Wallace won the South. This allowed the Democratic Party to regroup, say "well, that was bullshit" and come up with the superdelegates that all the Sanders voters loathe so much. As well they should - superdelegates were enshrined to essentially prevent Sanders and his ilk from ever winning the nomination. Romney, should he take this to the logical conclusion, becomes the Republican Party's Hubert Humphrey. This allows the Republicans to make sure none of that Tea Party bullshit happens ever again because they can give a quarter of all delegates to, say, Rubio or whatever before the caucuses even start without having their thumb obviously on the scale. There's no reasonable way Romney can win the general. If he wins the nomination then the Republicans get their superdelegates without anybody being shot, without a sitting president choosing not to run for re-election, and (they hope) without the riots. He'll probably get an ambassadorship out of it, or a super cushy lobbying gig. He's taking one for the team. The Republican establishment is probably wargaming the idea of just calling this one a bust and entrenching for the next one. Wouldn't you?
I think the theory is that Romney enters to further siphon off and split the delegates in order to prevent (or make it harder) for Trump to hit the number he needs to clinch it before the convention, thus forcing a brokered convention. The problem is, of course, who says he's going to siphon off any votes from Trump, especially after he led the attack against him. Another theory I have is that he makes himself technically eligiable so that he can be considered in a brokered convention that ends up brokered through no design of his own...with him being the only palatable adult in the room the the establishment GOP can rally behind. Problem there is Kasich already fills a pretty good Romney-esque roll in a situation like this, but has the added benefit of actually been in the race for a while with people voting for him. I don't know...it's very odd. And finally, nothing may come of this filing at all. Probably most likely scenario at the moment, but it's a really interesting filing nonetheless, especially combined with the speculation that he's prepared budget numbers to run as well.
That's the thing. I think the only candidate that could possibly have a shot in the dark of siphoning votes from Trump is Cruz, who isn't going anywhere. Cruz is the only other candidate with a strong "outsider" brand, which seems to the be animating force above all else in this GOp primary...discontentment.
And thus ensuing whoever the democratic nomination is wins the white house...
