Ahem – Don't. Doubt. Me.

Heh. If Rush can say it, I can too, and it will sound prettier. ;-)

John Stephenson at STACLU has an open thread going and they’re watching the returns and speculating: could it be? Brokered convention?

The WaPo blog asked a similar question this morning.

Ahem.

I predicted the very real possibility of a brokered convention right after Florida, and was laughed at.

I suggested this was going to happen when Rush Limbaugh and the far right went nuts medieval on McCain after Florida.

Figured many (particularly in the South) would heed Rush and leave McCain, but that they wouldn’t rush to Romney if they had a choice. No matter how much they tell you they don’t mind that he’s a Mormon…that might not be quite the reality.

Elsewhere I have written:, I’m not much of a joiner, and I prefer not to get entangled in the mob. That doesn’t make me smart or in any way special – the truth is I am a social freakazoid – but it does make me observant.

Hence, when John Hawkins asked bloggers to name President Bush’s next SCOTUS pick, I alone pronounced: Harriet Miers.

I recently told you Hillary would cry before New Hampshire.

Suggested that Bill Clinton would soon be too under the weather to campaign much. No timetable on that, although I did say “soon.” That might still happen.

And the other day I wrote:

While I am not a “dittohead” I have listened and found Rush to be funny, articulate and smart – I thought his payback to Harry Reid re the Senator’s letter to his network was brilliant. What I have heard lately has been bombastic and rather a lot about himself…which leads me to believe…

6)A brokered GOP Convention is already in the works and should surprise no one. The hard-right conservatives will try to get their own candidate onto the top of the ticket. Don’t know who they’ve got in mind for it, but these folks are not going to stand for McCain and Limbaugh is curiously silent on Romney…

As we all know, he had been curiously silent on Romney until there was, really, no one left to love except John McCain.

Hence, Mitt Romney has become “the boy who can do no wrong, for now.”

Watching the far right fall into fervent and shrill love with Mitt, I observed that there is a passionate, rigid determination behind some of this Mittmania that is entirely inappropriate to the relative newness of his support. Sort of like a whirlwind romance you get into on a cruise…because you’re alone and you want so badly to have a romance with someone.

And yeah, that all means something.

So, the other day I wrote:

Should a magically pristine “true” conservative (perhaps from the private sector or the military) suddenly appear from on high (or from behind Kingmaker Rush) and begin to woo the right and right-leaning moderates, they will desert Romney in an instant.

I will be VERY surprised if either of these two men – McCain or Romney – is at the top of the ticket when you go to vote in November. :::CLARIFICATION::: Or maybe what I more properly mean to say is that they may or may not top the ticket, but there may be a third party candidate. Bottom line: I’m saying everything is still fluid.:::END
[…]
A game is afoot – and masters are playing it. Right now everything bears watching; observation, not hyperventilation. Don’t let yourself get sucked into a news cycle and a strategy; you’ll be worn out by summer.

Taking all of this into consideration, and understanding there is a game in play, what I think will happen next, is…

…check back a little later.

WELCOME: Instapundit readers! While you’re here, please look around; today we’re also wondering – regardless who is at the top of the ticket, what about Heather Wilson for the Veep slot? and we’re already really struggling with no sugar in our coffee. Or in our oatmeal…