A DARK HORSE CAN'T WIN.

Or can one?

Currently, there are several Dark Horse candidates among the GOP presidential hopefuls:
Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, Jerry Ralph Curry, and Ron Paul.
Two dark horses have dropped out:
Tom Tancredo and Sam Brownback.

Why should we pay attention to any of these guys?
Isn’t there a clear favorite among Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, or Mitt Romney?
Why not John McCain or Fred Thompson?
Depending on which poll you read and from which state, these five gentlemen seem to be the top two tiers, and they move back and forth from first tier to second tier.
It appears that the Democrats have a similar situation with 3 front runners and a bunch of dark horses. (I’m not quite interested in them at the moment.)

Let’s set the wayback machine to 1880:
Chicago, Illinois;
The Republican National Convention is deadlocked by three sets of delegates who are stubbornly supporting their candidates.
As the first Ballot was cast the rankings were as follows
1) War Hero Ulysses S. Grant for a third Term of Office. 304 votes
2) Senator James G. Blaine 284 votes
3) Treasury Secretary John Sherman 093 votes
4) Minor candidates handful

379 votes were required to win the nomination and by dinnertime, 18 roll call votes were taken with very little movement by the delegates. When the convention resumed on Tuesday morning Sherman’s totals had increased to 116 then dropped again.

By the 34th ballot roll call, Wisconsin shocked everyone with 16 votes for Senator James A. Garfield (who was Sherman’s campaign manager and originally had nominated Sherman) Garfield jumped up and tried to decline the nomination, but was gaveled down and declared out of order by the chair. Now the score stood:
1) Grant 312 votes
2) Blaine 275 votes
3) Sherman 107 votes
4) Garfield 017 votes
The 35th ballot casting gave Garfield a total of 50 votes
The Roll Call for the 36th Ballot and Sherman ceding his support to Garfield gave him 395 votes and the nomination.

Why on earth is this relevant to 2008? Depending on which poll you go to most seem to have the GOP front runners much closer matched than they were in 1880. Just a Point to Ponder…Don’t Take my word for it,
Read Kenneth D. Ackerman’s 2003 book, Dark Horse: the Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A. Garfield