Does Deadlocked Mean Dead?

This year's Republican nomination process is different than in the past.  Most people are unaware of how these changes have affected this year's GOP race.

In the past, the GOP has favored winner-take-all primaries.  This process enabled a candidate to secure the nomination by the end of Super Tuesday--the day in which multiple states hold their primary elections.  State-by-state, if the candidate won the popular vote, they were awarded all the delegates.

This year is different.  The Republican National Committee changed the rules so that most presidential primaries and caucuses which take place before April 1st, are now required to award the delegates on a proportional basis rather than winner-take-all.

Image from rasmussenreports.com

The idea was to give the GOP plenty of time to properly vet the candidates.  (Democrats use this same method).

These changes however, are proving to be a double edged sword for the party.  With 4 committed candidates vowing to stay in it for the long haul, proportional delegation is making it very difficult for a front-runner to emerge.  Many analysts are now questioning whether these changes are really changes for the better.

Proportional delegation means that a weaker candidate can invest just enough resources to remain competitive in any state and regardless if they win the popular vote, they can slowly accumulate delegates with the hopes of securing an advantage over time.

Currently, even if a candidate wins the popular vote, they must now proportionately split up the delegates.  We saw this happen in Michigan.  Mitt Romney won the popular vote, but still had to split the delegates with Rick Santorum.

Problem?  Not one of the 4 candidates has indicated that they are willing to concede or drop out.  With 4 candidates firmly committed to stay in the race, this process could easily go on for months and months.

Photo from nymag.com

Gingrich and Santorum simply need to remain just competitive enough and spend just enough of their time and resources to gradually accumulate delegates--slowly blocking delegates from the front-runner Mitt Romney.

Although this effort probably won't grant them the needed 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination, their efforts could easily deadlock the GOP nomination until the Republican Convention.  Problem?  The Republican Convention is at the end of August.  Yep, that's right...the end of August.

Can we really imagine watching these candidates go at it for months and months, depleting each other of valuable resources and energy?  Dividing our party?  Precious fundraising dollars spent to compete against members of our party?   How is that nominee going emerge in September--two months away from the general election--and be a stronger candidate?  How will he be ready to take on the $1 billion Obama campaign machine? The answer is he won't.  

This is a disastrous scenario for our party.  The truth is, this scenario is becoming a reality.

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A drawn out fight will undoubtedly damage the GOP image and weaken our conservative cause.  There is no way that our eventual nominee will be stronger if we have to wait until the end of August to rally behind him.

Photo from washingtontimes.com

If we remain deadlocked until the end of August, we will undoubtedly fail.   Deadlocked promises an Obama 2nd term.  For conservatives, deadlocked = dead.

We have four very different conservative candidates, but only one crucial differentiator--Mitt Romney is only the candidate who the Obama team doesn't want to face.  Why?  Because Obama's failed policies cannot compete with Romney's years of successes.

As soon as possible, our party needs to put down the resistance and rally behind the one candidate that makes Obama nervous.  Rally behind the one candidate who can win.  But more importantly, we need to rally behind the one candidate who will know how to be effective from day one.

That candidate is Mitt Romney.