The summer doldrums are upon us, congress is in recess, the President dithers and the Boston Globe tries to talk up the prospect of brokered conventions next summer.
It won't happen but some vital space in the paper was filled up on a slow news day so that Brian McGrory can sleep tonight.
The truth is, it's been over a generation since the outcome of either party's convention was in serious doubt. You have to rewind all the way back to 1952 to find a situation where both parties had brokered conventions...that was Eisenhower versus Stevenson that year...a race for the ages in every respect.
Moreover, the "presumptive nominee" is determined earlier and earlier in each presidential election cycle, Dukakis had the nomination nailed down in Early April 1988, Kerry had it in the bag by the end of February 2004. This trend will no doubt reach a plateau in the near future unless New Hampshire moves up it's primary to December or something.
Anyway, the "brokered convention" meme is a punditariat hallmark they all write it at least once before an election, from the George Wills and Chris Matthews' down to the lowest most obscure blogger.
It's one of those indispensible cliches without which politics in this country would tank.
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