I think this makes sense about the Republican Party. See if you agree.

[MineralMan]

1. I think the Republicans know that they're going to lose the Presidential election.
2. Because of that, the power struggle between the old-school party and the teabaggers is the important factor.
3. Since Romney is the sure winner of the nomination, the old-school decided to make an attempt to force the ultra-conservative GOP members into a minor role.
4. To do this, they isolated the delegations that have delegates pledged to Ron Paul (FRP) and other candidates.
5. Further, they rammed some rule changes through that will alter the party in the favor of the old-school.

Bottom line: This convention is not about the next POTUS. It is about the direction of the GOP, since they know they'll lose the election this year. The GOP moved to alienate and rid itself of its ultra-conservative factions, and created rules that will keep them in the subordinate role assigned to them at this convention. The GOP isn't concerned about 2012, but about 2016 and beyond. It appears that the old-school Republicans have won this round in their quest to control the party. Democrats win this round.

[phantom power]

1. I think we may be seeing the old-school *failing* to keep the teabaggers under control

Their domesticated teabag monster has decided its tired of dog whistling, and is letting it all hang out, resulting in major chaos. I'm not sure if the fact that Romney-the-cypher is a symptom of that, or part of the cause, or both.

[MineralMan]

3. Yes, and I think they may be trying to force the

teabagger section of the party to go elsewhere. If they're convinced they can't win the Presidency this year, it's a good time to make the move in that direction. So far, they've succeeded in generating huge amounts of ire from the Ron Paul segment, and may have lost that group forever. On the other hand, the platform reflects much of the teabagger philosophy, even though the candidate isn't much loved by that segment.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the GOP on a national basis after Obama gets his second term.

[phantom power]

5. the GOP does seem to treat its defeats as strategic opportunties

which is one of those things the Dems could usefully learn from them.

In this case, I sort of wonder what they hope to gain from it. The tea "party" is nothing but the distilled sludge from four decades of Southern Strategy. And I'm hard pressed to think of any actual ideas that the GOP has to offer, even if they do somehow purge themselves of their own id.

more supply-side economics?
more privatization?
more police state?

They get more of a pass on that bollocks than they ought to, thanks to our stenographic media. But still, it was never an easy sell, or they'd never have needed the Southern strategy in the first place.

[MineralMan]

6. Power struggles in political parties are about power.

They aren't about anything else. Both groups want to control the party. Right now, it looks like the old-school Republicans may have a step up on the teabaggers, and they may well be using an losing election to leverage that.

[Brother Buzz]

2. I don't disagree

The only question remains: When will RNC pull money out of Romney's campaign to focus on congressional and gubernatorial races?

[MineralMan]

4. Yes, that will be interesting to see, if it happens.

And it may.

[LynneSin]

7. Mitt Romney was always the throwaway candidate and a perfect fit for 2012

I've always said since the start of the 2012 campaign cycle that the republicans are going to focus their effort on winning the senate and maintaining the house. They figured if they control both parts of congress they can keep Obama paralyzed until the 2016 elections when they can put their guy in charge.

Since Mitt first started running for office his life's mission was to accomplish was his father could never accomplish - running for president (George Romney ran for president in 1968 but lost out to Nixon). Mitt has always had a skewed outlook on life, something that can be common amonst people who were raised in a privledged lifestyle. Mitt and Ann talk about how they struggled thru college having to cash in some stocks to pay for living expenses - that hardly gives them any understanding of how the rest of us survived on student loans, minimum wage shit jobs and living in crappy houses with too many roommates just to make it thru college.

Some of the other candidates who ran in the primaries like Perry, Santorum, Bachmann and a few others really were just there to help raise their national profile. I would suspect we might see some of them run again in 2016. Other top tier GOP presidential candidates just skipped out on 2012 saving themselves for 2016 like Jeb Bush, Palin and some of those newly minted GOP governors.

Running Romney against Obama was a win-win for the GOP. Romney had the means to garner much of his campaign financing without dipping deeply into the RNC fundraiser savings. I also think he's someone that the RNC powers to be generally do not like but knew that Mitt would keep running for president again and again and again as long has he was physically able to do so. Usually once a candidate loses presidency they tend to fade to obscurity never to be heard from again. I'm guessing much of the GOP would like that to happen with Mitt.

But they also know that should Mitt win they have Paul Ryan installed who they know will stick to the GOP platform without compromise. Mitt has a massive history of flip-flopping - even criticizing the healthcare program that Obama created that was based on the plan that Mitt started when he was governor of Massachusetts. If some crazy reason Mitt wins, I suspect that Mitt & Ann will be nothing more than a figurehead leader of the country handling all those public appearances where they need smiling people to say everything is ok whilst Ryan will work with Congress to ensure laws are passed to allow the rich get richer and the rest of us get screwed.