The risks of a brokered GOP convention

What if they nominate Danforth?

The good news is that none of the Republicans currently running for President is actually a plausible President, and that each of them seems to have something about him that’s a clear dealbreaker in terms of getting the nomination: Giuliani’s women, vulgar corruption, and lack of culture war-cred, Romney’s religion and flip-flopping, McCain’s positions on immigration and campaign finance, Huckabee’s protectionism.

The bad news is that this could lead to a brokered convention. The Republicans could come out of a smoke-filled room with a candidate who could never get past the primaries but would be formidable in November: Danforth, Lugar, Whitman, or Kean, for example.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com