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Galileo Galilei
06-05-2008, 05:46 PM
Politico: A centrist third party would have most success

http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2008/06/politico-a-centrist-third-party-would-have-most-success/

"In the past 40 years, the candidates who have done best were the most difficult to classify ideologically. George Wallace took 13.5 percent and five states running on a populist, segregationist platform in 1968. John Anderson won 6.6 percent as a centrist in 1980. Ross Perot, who mixed populism and centrism, polled at 19 percent in 1992 and at 8 percent four years later.

"Based on this, it would seem that the real potential for a successful third-party candidacy would come from the center, not the right or the left. Liberals and conservatives mostly feel as though they have a major-party home, while many moderates don’t.

Except vehicles like Perot’s Reform Party don’t last. And the trial balloons for possible third-way contenders such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska quickly run out of air.

That leaves the harder-line parties to woo voters who don’t see a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Some of these parties have gotten themselves some big names. It remains to be seen whether they will translate into bigger vote totals."

Bob Barr needs to run in the center.

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