Senior Republicans have begun seriously raising the prospect of an alternative presidential candidate amid growing dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, the party front-runners.
Senior Republicans have begun seriously raising the prospect of an alternative presidential candidate amid growing dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, the party front-runners.
After a woeful 20th televised debate, in which neither candidate scored a decisive victory and discussion descended into Washington minutiae, high-profile figures said that a wild card Republican or even an independent candidate could be required to prevent Barack Obama securing re-election.
Haley Barbour, the party's former chairman, became its most senior grandee to say that no current candidate had convincingly "made the case" that they could seize the White House in November.
Mr Barbour said it would not be "necessarily bad" if August's party convention in Florida were to appoint a nominee via horse-trading rather than smoothly crowning Mr Romney or a present rival. "If the Republican primary voters continue to split up their votes in such a way that nobody is close to having a majority, then there is a chance that somebody else might get in," he told ABC News.
No Republican convention has been "contested" since 1976, when Gerald Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan after a long and bitter nomination process to which this year's is frequently compared.
Some have called for a "white knight" candidate to ride into as many late primary elections as still possible, before trying to seize delegates from other states at the convention in Tampa.
Names proposed include Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother of President George W., Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, and Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice-presidential nominee. All have previously ruled themselves out of this year's contest.
Calls for an alternative choice will grow louder if Mr Romney, a relatively moderate former Massachusetts governor, fails to win a crucial primary in his home state of Michigan next week.
Having trailed Mr Santorum by nine percentage points last week, Mr Romney has closed the gap to a virtual tie, according to RealClearPolitics polling aggregates. He leads Mr Santorum by eight points in Arizona. Both states hold their primaries on Tuesday.
A CBS/New York Times poll last month found that just 34 per cent of Republican voters were satisfied with the candidates, while 62 per cent wanted more options. Meanwhile Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor who dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the first two primaries, called for an independent candidate to shake up the election.
"We're going to have problems politically until we get some sort of third party movement or some alternative voice out there that can put forward new ideas," Mr Huntsman told MSNBC.
It has been suggested that Mr Huntsman - who endorsed Mr Romney but is no friend of his fellow Mormon - may himself lead a campaign for Americans Elect, a third-party movement. However he added: "That ain't gonna be me, by the way … I'm not interested in that".
The speculation followed a debate in Mesa, Arizona, in which Mr Santorum, a Right-wing former Pennsylvania senator, gave a faltering performance and failed to capitalise on a recent polling surge.
He instead allowed Mr Romney, who won the debate only by default, to paint him as a tainted Washington insider, admitting that he had voted for things he disagreed with as a US senator because sometimes "you take one for the team".
Amid unprecedented loathing for Congress, his remarks threatened to confirm Mr Romney's attack that Mr Santorum is too compromised to deliver the radical overhaul of the capital that Republican activists demand.
"I wonder which team he was taking it for," Mr Romney told supporters at a rally in Arizona last night. "My team is the American people, not the insiders of Washington." He added: "I don't know if I've ever seen a politician explain in so many ways why it was he voted against his principles."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=spacer}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}