You can bet there are a number of those people who would like the Republican VP nomination. If they lose they still would have received national exposure, and would be in a good place for the 2016 run.

While meaningless as a practical matter, the planks do reveal the pressures to which the candidate is subject within his or her own party. Conservatives wouldn’t be averse to inserting items which would divide the country and ensure a Democrat win.

The way the primaries are set up, along with the modern political process, someone will gain momentum, and there will a winner by convention time.

This is assuming no candidate breaks the DGLB rule.

I watched my first set of televised conventions in 1956. The broadcast people were constantly hyping democrat floor fights (Ike was a given), and the nomination coming down to the floor.

I loved that stuff, it seemed exciting like waiting for a storm, dangerous, unpredictable, a name never heard before. I was glued to the TV, from gavel to gavel.

By the time I watched my second set of conventions, I had figured out that it was 99% about boosting network ratings and early seeds of cynicism were planted.

To the best of my recollection the tooth and nail conventions had happened, but no more than once or twice in the early 20th century. This is not to say that candidates were not chosen by machine politics until the national primary system was implemented. It was just done peacefully well before the conventions.

Also, it’s never the same twice. You can get an idea of the complexity at the Wikipedia article, and it’s educational to click back to the 2008 Republican primary article, too. Note the changes in dates, the difference in “Super Tuesday,” and all the rest.

Given the schedule, I’m pretty much just watching the process from the cheap seats (I get to vote in June. Guess how much difference that’s going to make by then).

I really doubt it’s going to go all the way to the convention. As I said, I doubt it’s still going to be up in the air by June.