The great majority of National Democratic Congress (NDC) members now accept that Rawlings is a lost cause as far as Election 2012 is concerned.
What has been an issue is what length he would want to go to ensure the NDC's defeat.
Rawlings had made it clear in his speech on May 15 that he had taken the strategic decision to tackle the �treacherous� NDC first before deciding what to do about the �perceived enemy,� the New Patriotic Party.
In that speech on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the 31st December Women�s Movement he declared that �the culture of political selfishness, greed, thievery and ingratitude has to be exorcised.�
Even before that speech, party members had been complaining that his public attacks on the party was harming the party�s public image and delegation after delegation trooped to his office in the hope of getting him to tone down at the minimum.
After that address, however, his intentions became quite clear to the party and the question became what he intended to do to exorcise the evils that he had identified and whether he still had the means and the ability to do so.
There is very little prospect of forming a party to win the 2012 elections, but it might be possible to siphon off a small percentage of the NDC�s votes, which can be disastrous for the party if the elections become as close as they were the last time.
In the favour of mainstream NDC is that most of Rawlings� core supporters within the party now appear fed up with him and are accusing him of acting recklessly to deny them their daily bread.
The issue of whether the Rawlings factor will matter in December this year depends upon whose pull or push will be strong enough to deny the other�s wish.
This is where the idea of outdooring a new party becomes an additional arsenal in Rawlings� armoury.
Talk of forming a political party started in earnest after Nana Konadu�s massive defeat at the Sunyani Congress.
But the official spokesperson of the former President, Kofi Adams, denied all such accounts, even stating on one occasion that the founder of the party is not the one to leave a party that he has built but [it is] rather those who feel uncomfortable with the issues [he had raised] that will have to leave the party.
Nonetheless, the party�s possible outdooring peaked close to this year�s June 4 anniversary. Mr Rawlings avoided the issue but told the NDC, �You have left crass criminals like Woyome and those who supported him in government and you expect to win an election? What is your moral stand?�
Now Kofi Adams has flown the kite, hinting loudly that Ghanaians should get ready for the Rawlingses new party.
Speaking last Monday on Adom FM�s Dwaso Nsem, he said the new party would be �formed with the intention of salvaging an existing party.�
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