The days of smoke-filled rooms populated by horse-trading pols picking a party's presidential nominee lie generations in the past, but an analogue (absent smoke, of course) is likely to occur when Democrats convene in Milwaukee a little more than six months from now These so-called "brokered" or "open" or "contested" conventions materialize when no candidate has the majority of the votes of the delegates voting on the first ballot.  The stage for that situation will begin to be set at the Iowa caucuses very soon, as was discussed on these pages a month ago and more recently. Liz Peek has written about such a situation here: Given that there are...more than a dozen candidates running, and that several are well financed, it seems possible that no one candidate will secure the nomination on the first round ... a process most voters don't know much about; the last...(Read Full Post)