Guest AuthorBeyond the pettiness, the vitriolic words, the name-calling and the bombast from Donald Trump also sits a chasm between what is the truth and what suits him and his own goals.
While he calls Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” and Marco Rubio “Little Marco,” he also finds ways to offer a story line to the American voters that is just not based in reality. For example, Trump apparently doesn’t understand how conventions function and that delegates can change their votes under certain circumstances.
I was at the Republican debate at the University of Miami when Trump stated that the number of delegates required to win was an artificially created construct and how it had no meaning.
History tells us that the requirement for a GOP candidate to be nominated for president is a rule adopted in the 1860 convention that put forth Abraham Lincoln as the Republican standard bearer. The rule is that the nominee have one-half plus one of all the possible delegates.
Somehow Trump believes that having to gain a majority of the delegates is an artificial number that means nothing.
Trump has said that even if he doesn’t get a majority but is very close that some of his supporters would riot if he is denied the nomination. Apparently he thinks his supporters also do not subscribe to majority vote elections.
In his world, he should be anointed with a plurality, yet history has never been that way in his party, even when candidates were very, very close. A majority vote of the delegates is needed to be the nominee, period!
For example, in 1952 Harry Truman was President, having assumed office upon the death of FDR and winning the office outright in 1948 by defeating Tom Dewey in an upset election. Truman later declared in his autobiography that he did not really want to run in 1952.
That spring he had tried to entice Adlai Stevenson, Governor of Illinois, to run but had been pushed back. So Truman ran. Keep in mind that our country had been at war in Korea for three years, and Democrats had controlled the presidency for many years. The nation was ripe for a change.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communism was front-page news and Sen. Estes Kefauver led a Senate investigation of organized crime. Truman was unpopular, garnering only a 36 percent approval rating from his own party voters.
That summer the Democrats convened in Chicago. Kefauver was the front runner and Truman withdrew after losing new Hampshire. But Truman worked hard to get someone better to run.
Since the Democrats met in Chicago, the welcoming address was given by Stevenson, who had not been on any ballots. But he gave a rousing speech. He was a gifted orator, an intellectually thoughtful man and perceived to be a moderate who could appeal to many Democrats (in those days, they were not all left of center). Stevenson wanted to run for re-election as governor, but was convinced to allow his name to be submitted on the floor.
After three ballots, he gained the nomination even though he had had no support prior to the convention. On the first ballot, Kefauver, who gathered delegates throughout the primary process, led 340 to Stevenson’s 273. On the third ballot, Stevenson went from 324.5 to 617.5 and won the nomination. That was the last year that either the GOP or the Democrats had more than one ballot during their conventions.
On the Republican side, Dwight Eisenhower was a war hero running against highly regarded Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio. Taft had run for the nomination previously in 1940, 1948 and now in 1952. Eisenhower was so innocent of the political process that he thought the convention also picked who would be the presidential nominee’s.
In a bid to win California in the general election, Eisenhower chose Richard Nixon as his running mate. Also seeking the presidential nomination were California Gov. Earl Warren, Minnesota’s Harold Stassen and Gen. Douglas McArthur.
At the end of the first ballot, Eisenhower led Taft 595 to 500. It didn’t go to a second ballot because Stassen declared that his votes should go to Eisenhower.
So despite whatever nonsense Trump spouts, there is ample precedent for delegates to make choices. In fact, Republicans have held 10 conventions since 1860 where no candidate had the majority of votes required. In seven of those, the leading candidate entering the convention did not win the nomination.
Nominations by parties are a political process governed by rules. Sometimes the selection is done by party leaders; sometimes it is done by an accumulation of enough delegates. But in all cases since 1860, the nominee needed a majority of delegates to win, either prior to the convention or on the convention floor.
Facts are stubborn things.
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Ed H. Moore resides in Tallahassee, Florida, where he is perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
