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?