Once upon a time, in a political climate far,far away, political conventions actually meant something.

Sometimes, they even did unexpected things. Imagine that?

But, alas, in recent times, presidential nominating conventions have been as scripted as one of the old prime-time network shows in the days before reality TV became the rage.

However, on September 1st, 2008, in  Minneapolis-St. Paul, there are some political experts who are now saying the GOP convention could end up being the  first truly contested one in 60 years!

The scenerio plays out like this: After super-Tuesday and a handful of other important primaries, such as in Florida, no clear Republican candidate emerges from the pack.

Should this go down, then come September, the convention floor could be a very interesting place to be as deals and counter deals are negotiated in an effort to rally around one candidate for the presidency.

South Dakota’s Republican National Committeeman Ron Schmidt tells the Associated Press: “The way it looks now, it could end up in the convention.”

The Democrats, on the other hand, are unlikely to face this prospect for their own convention in Denver. Just about all political observers predict a clear Democratic presidential candidate will be obvious–and will have the needed number of delegates–well before convention time.

At least for the Republicans, we could be facing a very hectic and uncertain time.

That’s why they call it–democracy.