Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday floated his theory of who the Republican establishment will pick as their presidential nominee if they decide to deny the slot to Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.
"I'm here to tell you Jeb Bush is going to be the nominee,"
Limbaugh told his radio audience.
"The panic is real today," he said. The establishment is "acting as though their own very future is at stake today. And they have decided that the future of the Republican Party, as you know it and love it, hangs on what happens in Ohio. Meaning John Kasich, in their view, had better win this thing."
Still, he said, the Ohio governor doesn't have a prayer of becoming the nominee.
Oddly, Limbaugh noted, such a move would actually end up accomplishing a goal that Limbaugh himself has mocked Bush for: winning the nomination by being willing to lose the primaries.
Limbaugh pointed to a
Daily Caller story that quotes RNC Rules Committee member Curly Haugland that says that, contrary to popular belief, the delegates are not required by rule to vote for their pledged candidate on the first vote.
That, Limbaugh said, is an indication there may be a plan afoot to nominate someone other than Trump or Cruz, who are likely to have the two highest delegate counts going into the convention. Neither candidate is favored by the establishment.