From Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics:
But for the first time, the two way faceoff doesn’t seem inevitable, and a viable path to a brokered convention is beginning to emerge…To see it, let’s examine a map of U.S. counties and how they have voted so far. Blue counties backed Romney, red backed Gingrich, green are for Santorum, while white have gone for some other candidate (or not yet voted)….If this split continues — Romney in the West and Northeast, Gingrich in the South, and Santorum in the Midwest — we could easily find ourselves in a scenario where no candidate crosses the 1,144-delegate threshold by the time voting ends. Consider
This map overstates Santorum’s reach, since Missouri is all green because Newt was not on the ballot, and the rest of the Santorum territory represents low-vote and low-delegate caucuses.
Nonetheless, a three-way split could emerge.
Then what? Who would likely emerge at a convention? And would that make Ron Paul the kingmaker?
Mark Levin thinks Paul will fall in with Romney (here’s the article Levin reads):
Update: Reader poll added (open until 7 p.m. Eastern tonight) — Who do you think would emerge as nominee from a brokered convention (not who do you want)?
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