Mitt Romney has all but sewn up the nomination, needing about 150 delegates to put him safely over the top. I sense Mr. Romney, who during the primaries was almost never the average Republican voter's first choice, will encounter some divisive scuffles on his way to the nomination during convention week the end of this August in Tampa.
He has already pulled out the etch-a-sketch, but the party faithful who are tepidly supporting his nomination, about 2816 of them delegates, could start to split the party in what I hope is a raucus time for the candidate.
How can a platform committee not cede to the tea party, social right-wing, and some of the liberatarian/tea partyism of Ron Paul? Paul is hoping to still gather delegates. What's his purpose? Supposedly he likes Mitt Romney, but he's recently been saying that about African-Americans he once denegrated in his newsletter. Not to be trusted, this man.
The Romney team will try and take control of the whole process - and may succeed - but it's not going to be easy. The convention platform will be expected to be adhered to in order to dispel Romney's lack of core principles. During the primaries, he pretty much pandered to the right on budgetary items, national defense, social issues. He can't escape these earlier positions.
So, the convention platform, on which the nominee and his VP pick will have to run, will be filled with all the ills the Republican right-wing is infested with. Such as...
The economic plank will almost certainly be the wholesale adoption of the Ryan budget plan. The Obama team is already well-versed in how to counter the outlandish notions Ryan has about taxes and spending. (And, as far as creating jobs: the Ryan plan is all you need, they think.)
The national defense plank will include more money for the Defense Department and, who knows, a revival of the missile defense system.
The Foreign policy plank will directly challenge China and Iran in such a way as to provoke a mini-Cold War. And North Korea will be further isolated just when the country might be thawing a bit. And Cuba - well there's that Florida vote, you know?
Treaties that President Obama championed will be re-examined by the platform committee. They'll want to gut anything related to worker rights, environmental protection, and civil liberties. The U.N. will be put in storage.
Executive Orders will need to be written and Obama's set aside.
A call to keep tax returns secret will be the privacy plank Romney is sure to endorse.
Supreme Court nominees will have to be ideologically to the right of Antonin Scalia.
Drill baby drill will give an oily sheen to the party platform and the Keystone pipeline will be revived.
Of course, repeal of the Presiden't health-care law, if not overturned by then, will need to be prominently mentioned.
And, the Rick Santorum plank will need to include all those social issues he says he never talked about.
Newt Gingrich is a wild card here. What would the Gingrich plank consist of? How about an ethics plank named after the former speaker?
These are just some random thoughts, but I'd like to see a rousing time at the Republican Convention.
I believe some protest marches are planned by our side. But I don't expect anything as divisive as the 1968 Democratic Convention. What a grand riot that was.