Unless one of them has a health problem, I don't see it happening, and it's useless to speculate on such small odds.
They both won their primaries fair and square. McCain is a compromise candidate between the fiscal and the social conservatives; choosing someone else would alienate half their base and guarantee a loss.
On the other side, there is so much invested in Obama that it would rip apart the Democratic party if they got to the convention and somehow, some way, the delegates chose someone else. It would alienate younger and black voters for a full generation, and make us look like idiots.
In short: No.
The pebbles have voted and the avalanche has begun.
President-Elect "That One"
Of course it could happen. In short, yes.
It's fully within the rights of each party to change its mind.
I'm eager to hear your thoughts on the percentage liklihood of this happening.
In extraordinary circumstances and only those. Otherwise it becomes a subversion of democracy and a huge flaw within the system, since polls are so easily gamed.
As the Obama backers were so eager to tell us during the primary season, the popular vote makes absolutely no difference in a nomination battle.
We were eager to point out that popular vote is not the metric, it is delegate count. Obama won the pledged delegates, he should win.
Is there a chance Obama might not get it? Of course! Is it likely to happen without drastic changes in the race, and I mean DRASTIC changes? Not at all. Obama would have to be trailing by 15 points before that became a valid point of contention.
So there IS a possibility, but pretending that it is currently a high one is foolish.
