The specter of a brokered Republican convention to choose a presidential nominee to challenge President Obama in November exists because the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican party is concerned that a Massachusetts moderate, Mitt Romney, may win the party’s presidential nomination. These people would prefer anyone but Mr. Romney and favor the hard-right social conservative Rick Santorum above Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in their affections.
They would do well to ponder the lesson of 1964 when the darling of the conservative wing, Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater, defeated the Eisenhower establishment candidates Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton for the nomination. Goldwater promptly led the Republican Party to electoral disaster against an incumbent liberal. Sound familiar?
PAUL BLOUSTEIN
Cincinnati
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