Can someone please explain to me what a "brokered convention" means and the implications for this campaign? Thanks

a brokered convention...read the posts ....below comment if it helped at all.

RSK it becomes a brokered convention. What this means is that the thousands of delegates present at the convention decide through negotiation whom the next nominee will be. Of course if one of the MSM picks is chosen, the negotiated platform is quickly forgotten and they institute their own ideology (i.e. more spending, more taxes, less liberties, etc.).

Regardless of what happens in FL, we will move on to Super Duper Tuesday, where 22 states -- that is right -- 22 states will have primaries, or somehow select delegates.

Unless we can really move up in the percentage of "the vote" field, we will not be awarded many delegates.

In primaries, the delegates are awarded by the percentage of the vote, or in some states it is called "winner takes all" -- meaning whichever candidate has the highest vote percentage, gets all of the delegates.

For example, the 14% in NV may give us a few delegates, but Mitt, with over 50% will get the vast majority.

Unless Ron Paul can mount a significant delegate count, he will not be a player in the convention.

This is why there is among Ron Paul/pro Constitution fans, a divide over whether he should stay in the Rep contest after the Feb 5th primaries, or drop out and run as a 4th party (Bloomberg being the third party candidate).

The math will speak for itself Feb 5th. If he does not win many (or any) primaries, Ron will not have a be a presence at the convention, because he will not have attained enough delgates to be a "player".

If Fred drops out, that should give Huck a few more percentage points of votes, to beat McCain in several Southern states. McCain, Rudy and Mitt (who will do well in the Mountain West) will each win a few. So we could have four strong candidates with significant delegate strength towards the convention. If Ron continues to finish 4th or 5th; he just will not get many delegates to be a factor.

My predicition is that McCain's age will become a downward factor; the media will turn on Mitt. Rudy will be elevated, and Huck will be his running mate.

With a four way race between Rudy, Hillary, Mike Blomberg and Ron Paul; we could have a hope of victory. This hope of victory will increase, ---- --sadley, ---because Bush will bomb Iran before the fall election, and with higher blowback KIAs, we will get the pro peace vote.

Really depends who Ron picks for his Vice President running mate. If he wants to win he has to select someone who can expand his base. "Expand his base" means someone who can bring 1-2% of the national vote, that he would not generally bring in. Someone who would bring one or two states in for Ron Paul. Also someone who the media will take seriously, and that they will want to interview.

Either a Mormon, Hispanic, an African American would fit that. Again, the person would have to be of national statue. This would mean some compromise on our part; but if you want to run with an opportunity to win -- this is what we have to do.

Some say nominate Pat, Ralph, Dennis, Williams, etc -- but these people do not expand the base -- they are "preaching to the choir". These people -- bring the same base that Ron Paul has now for the most part.

Ron will have to go after demographics that will bring in real votes and real credibility. If Ron fails to select a real deal Veep, his supporters, will not embrace another $25 million, and countless hours of volunteering, and most importantly -- he will not expand his voter base -- which he needs to do to win.

Anyways --for right now -- we need to work hard to see how well we can do on Feb 5th; then take a look at where we are at. Please donate today if you can.

Thanks to all of those who have sign waved, donated money, sent emails, voted on online poolls, and etc -- it is making an impact; now we need to take it to the next level.

With the Constitution hanging by a thread, we cannot afford to lose this one.

Pray for Ron, our country, her leaders, our families, ourselves. Peace

The primaries and caucuses are just ways of getting delegates.

To become the nominee a candidate must win by receiving a MAJORITY (50% +1) of the delegate votes. Ideally, the party prefers a candidate to have a FULL majority (like 67% of the delegate votes) in order to have a "consensus" candidate.

Normally since the primaries achieve a "consensus" a single candidate has that many delegates in his proverbial "back pocket" before the convention even begins. In those cases (i.e. by normally we mean within living memory) there is only one round of "voting" by delegates.

However this is NOT a normal year.

At the convention, if in the first "vote" of delegates no candidate receives a majority, then (after a delay of some hours) additional "rounds" of voting will be necessary until a "winner" emerges.

Additionally, most delegates are only "bound" to vote for the candidate that "sent them" (i.e. won their state primary/caucus) for the first round of voting and/or only as long as THAT candidate gets 30% of the vote... after that, they are free to vote for whomever they want (they can even vote for "Mickey Mouse").

And, while candidate can "endorse" someone else and "release" the delegates who are "bound" to them, they cannot actually force those delegates to vote for the person they endorse. (Though many would likely do so).

So a brokered convention would be one in which there are a lot of "backroom deals" going on... i.e. Romney trying to get Huckabee and/or McCain to release delegates and endorse in exchange for VP or Cabinet spot, or vice versa, etc.

Most likely such deals will actually take place BEFORE the convention itself. But there is NO guarantee that they will "stick" or even be enough.

For example, say Romney has 30% of the delegates, RP 25%, Huck 20%, McCain 15% and Thompson 10% -- well even a "deal" between Romney and Huck would only *barely* send Romney over 50% and that ONLY if all of Huckabee's "released" delegates actually CHOSE to vote for Romney... most likely a few % maybe even 50% would not, so a single "deal" is unlikely to get anyone over the top, much less will it make them the "consensus" candidate.

A true brokered convention is virtually complete chaos -- almost a total free-for-all. And the eventual nominee can even be someone who was NOT even a candidate (i.e. we could end up with Jeb Bush being a name thrown into the mix -- hard to imagine, but entirely possible; especially with most of the GOP "machine" still being loyal Bushites).