Can quality sound be had using the short axis in a medium sized room (12X15) ??

By short axis I assume you mean "long wall" placement?  If yes, I use this type of arrangement often but like everything else it depends in your room and your speakers.  Beacuase of the way the room is designed and used, I can only use the long wall for speaker placement in my my 16 x 22 living room and I have successfully used many different speakers in there over the last 25+ years.

Many speakers (omnidirectional, bidirectional, wide dispersion) do not sound best placed on the short axis and near the side walls in moderately sized rooms.  Some speakers, Larsen and the larger Magnepan models come to mind, are designed to be placed on the long wall.

The problem with long wall placement can be if there is not enough room for proper speaker placement away from the front wall, distance from you to the speaker and distance behind your ears to the rear wall.  It's often hard to achieve a perfect Cardas or Sumiko (or whatever manufacturer you like) arrangement based on the rule of thirds or fifths.  I would look for a speakers that will allow placement close to, if not right against, the front wall for better seating flexibility.

The alternative is to adopt a nearfield listening position.  This works really well with some speakers.  The little Harbeth P3s come to mind, where nearfield usually produces the best sound.

I've heard JBL 100s sound wonderfully open and precise positioned right up to the rear wall. Same for tall Kef floorstanders with about a foot behind them. I recently heard some Monopulses and Kerr Acoustics sound great with not much space behind them.

As you say the key is to get some speakers that don't need yards of space behind them to really sing. 

None of mine (Regas, Ruarks and Tannoys) have ever been more than 10 inches away from the wall. I did have my Quad ESLs out further but didn't think the results were worth the effort so I sold them on.

There is also that old chestnut about close wall proximity speakers not imaging as well as free standing ones.

Not sure if any consensus was ever reached on that one.

II would imagine that your proposed seating arrangement would put your head close to the wall. As such you’ll need to put some absorbing room treatment directly behind your head. I prefer the long wall layout with such treatment over other options more often than not.

Exactly!  Long wall arrangement allows the speakers to breathe away from front and side walls, so long as you treat acoustically the wall behind you.  That's what I do and it works well.

Don't be afraid to experiment.  Keep an open mind and an open set of ears, but don't forget the details.  Where are the electrical outlets?  Sometimes you got to be willing to haul your Mt. Everest of LPs to a different wall. Sometimes the floor gets scuffed, too.