The #NeverTrump folks just tried get a roll call vote on a set of rules changes, but they failed. Nine state delegations were in favor, but after a massive campaign of arm twisting and begging, three of them withdrew. That left only six, but seven were needed to force the vote.
Victory for Trump! Victory for Reince Priebus! We may now all pretend that the Republican Party is happily unified behind their standard bearer. Whew.
And what were the rules changes about? Apparently it was an effort to (a) unbind the delegates so they could vote for whoever they wanted, and (b) change the rules for 2020 to encourage closed primaries. This latter change would have benefited Ted Cruz—but only if you assume that Trump will lose to Hillary Clinton this year and 2020 will even have a primary race. Which apparently Cruz believes. But it’s not exactly the message the RNC wants to beam out to millions of viewers, is it?
And now back to our regularly scheduled nobodies who are speaking in the afternoon session. You’ll have to wait until this evening for any of the big names to appear. For example, Scott Baio, Rudy Giuliani, and Melania Trump. Bring ’em on!
UPDATE: Hmmm. I was wrong about the 2020 stuff. I guess the anti-Trump folks are hoping to get a vote on that later.
