Leo, as convention Chair sits down with representatives from the Russell, Santos and Hoynes campaigns and in between the fighting tries to organize proceedings. The potential nominees will be allowed to speak before two ballots will take place. With no one prepared to give up ground, Leo resorts to Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide the speaking order. Josh is trying to work out where he can find the crucial votes needed to win Santos the nomination. With the belief that Hoynes' campaign is over, Josh asks his former boss to transfer his votes to Santos after the first ballot. Hoynes says he'll think about it. Meanwhile, the Russell camp receives some bad news; Governor Eric Baker, their choice for Vice President after Santos's rejection wants to talk again.

With voting in the first ballot going on, Russell tries to convince Baker to stay on board - a Russell-Baker ticket is being touted by the media as a potential rival for the Vinick-Sullivan Republican ticket - but Baker remains unconvinced. After announcing he'll sleep on it, Russell tells Will and Donna that he believes Baker is going to enter the race at the second ballot and try and get elected from the floor.

As news spreads of Baker's plans, the Russell and Santos campaigns each begin to frantically tally the delegates' potential votes. Everyone is working out where the votes are going to be won and lost - with what seems like most of the Northeast's delegates defecting to Baker, as Baker makes his intentions known to the press.

Leo gets what is now the four candidates together and tells them the second ballot will end in deadlock. He says there will be another chance to address the convention before the third ballot, and urges them to make some calls to try and decide a nominee before things get too out of hand. As the votes are announced in the background, Santos, Russell, and Baker are all about even, while Hoynes has a mere 102 votes.

At Russell Headquarters, Will concedes to Donna that with Baker picking up momentum, he isn't sure they can make it to the fourth ballot. As Donna says that maybe they should approach Josh again about the Vice-President job, Will says that at the moment, he'd settle for a Santos-Russell ticket. Meanwhile in the Santos camp, Josh says they need the teachers' unions to have a shot at winning the nomination. However, the teachers' unions are unabashedly opposed to Santos due to his campaign promise to end teacher tenure. Despite this, Josh still goes to see Ernie Gambelli, the head of the Unions. He says there can be no deal without a policy shift from Santos. When Josh returns, he is presented with a fax, detailing hospital admittance records for Baker's wife, who suffers from depression. Josh tells Santos to release the information; it makes Baker susceptible to blackmail otherwise. Santos refuses. The Russell campaign has also received the fax and a similar argument ensues between Will and Donna. Despite Donna's best efforts, Will says he will encourage the Vice President to release the information. With the information out in the open, Baker's hopes of the nomination disappear.

As day three of the Convention dawns, Leo urges Josh to get the Congressman to quit the race. Josh tells him Santos won't listen. Leo goes to see him himself, and tells him he must step aside in favor of either Russell or Baker, and he'll receive a chance to address the Convention. Meanwhile, with the President at the convention site, C.J. tells the President that perhaps it is time he chose his own successor.

When Santos delivers his speech, he announces to the arena that although he has been asked to step aside, he will not, telling the delegates it is their decision who receives the nomination. He goes on to denounce the use of Baker's wife's depression as a tool for influencing the nomination. Josh is astounded by the speech, since he believed Santos would finally quit. As Bartlet watches, he tells Leo to find Josh.

Josh exits an elevator with a clearly irate Gambelli telling him another meeting with Santos is pointless as Santos won't change his position. Josh tells him he isn't going to see "his guy," and introduces him to the President. In the fourth ballot, as the tide finally turns, Gambelli is one of several delegates to declare his votes for Congressman Matthew Santos."

After Tuesday night, the sun has now set on Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. While Rudy will get out tomorrow, Mike Huckabee will stay in one more week to grab a few more delegates for the convention this fall.

I’ve been a Huck guy since there were no Huck guys. Not many people get the unique opportunity to sit down to a private dinner with someone running for President of the United States. Granted, he was in the same no-chance category as Dennis Kucinich, but he was running. For someone who is clearly not a “big shot,” it was a thrill. Well, the thrill is fading faster than his bank account.  

What do we have left to choose from? John McCain and Mitt Romney. That brings me to a question I’ve posed to conservative friends of mine for a few years now: Terminology or Ideology?

What does that mean? Simply, is it good to have RINO’s around? The question stemmed from seeing how disappointed we were in the likes of Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter, and John McCain. While the terminology was an “R,” the ideology was an “L.” They were simply Republicans in Name Only. However, those RINO’s  kept Republicans in the Majority in the Senate and so we justified it. However, when you lose the Senate, stomaching RINO’s become much more difficult.

For weeks, talk radio (minus Michael Medved) has had two men in their sites: Mike Huckabee and John McCain. While it was difficult for me to agree with the first, you got no argument out of me on the second. Huck, who has more and more lost me, doesn’t have a chance but now John McCain is the clear front runner and Michael Medved may be right in declaring talk radio is the loser during these GOP Primaries.

Going into Florida, the drumbeat has been there is no way conservatives vote for John McCain in the first real closed primary. As Dr. Phil would say, how’s that working for ya? Apparently, not very well.

So, like the democrats, we’ve got a two-and-a-half man race. McCain and Hillary are the insiders, Romney and Obama are the outsiders. McCain and Hillary both have a substantial amount of consternation amongst the base of their party. Romney and Obama are the fresh faces who were all but unknown a year ago. John Edwards and Mike Huckabee, both southerners, have the populist message and are vying to either be VP or part of a future administration…or bringing delegates to their convention so they have a significant voice this fall.

So, now, it’s time for Super Tuesday. What states does McCain win? What states does Romney win? Will there be a clear winner as a result? Probably not. Next up are two really big prizes: Texas and Ohio. Republicans cannot win the White House without winning both. McCain and Romney will have to come to the Lone Star State and make their case. So what wins, Terminology or Ideology?  In a battle of the lesser of two evils, I’ll choose Mitt Romney. Not a ringing endorsement, but the bell is tolling.