The Washington Post reports that Reince Priebus gathered 20 Republican leaders, including Mitch McConnell, to discuss the possibility of Donald Trump “nearing next year’s nominating convention in Cleveland with a significant number of delegates.” The Republicans haven’t had a brokered convention since 1976, when the party was reeling after Watergate (Watergate!) and didn’t want to nominate serial stairs-faller-downer Gerald Ford, but did anyway (he lost).
As the Post notes, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way for leading Republicans. After Romney’s 2012 defeat, the RNC moved to speed up the process with limited debates and an earlier convention date.” But it is this way, thanks in large part to Donald Trump’s increasingly xenophobic campaign, which seems to be alienating everyone on the planet except a good amount of Republican voters. When you take into account the undying loyalty of Trump’s supporters (one said she’d kill for him recently!) and Trump’s particular skill with both zingers and improvisation (he was terrible on SNL, but he would kill at UCB on a Saturday night), and you have a recipe for one hell of a spectacle. And chaos too, sure. But spectacular chaos.