bobbyw24
01-10-2010, 07:51 AM
What a friggin nightmare that would be
Over the course of the race for 2008, I often quipped that I was “waiting for Perot” with regard to the dearth of a meaningful third party candidate in the race. The pun, of course, referenced the play, “Waiting for Godot,” which involved two characters waiting in vain for a third character (Godot) who never manages to show up. The Perot of 2008, I suggested, would fill the vacuum in a race between Bush Republicanism and a standard issue Democratic ticket by providing voters with a small-government, anti-war alternative. Had Ron Paul decided to run third party in 2008, he probably would have filled that void, though in the end, the market for a third party candidate dried up as Obama managed to present himself to the public as an ideologically amorphous managerial candidate whose claim to fame was that he wasn’t George W. Bush.
As we approach the race for 2012, the market for a third party candidate once again has the potential to develop depending on how things play out over the next couple of years as each major party struggles to find its voice in post-Clinton, post-Bush America. The Democrats appear to be moving decidedly leftward, embracing bigger government, more central planning, more debt, cultural bossiness on issues like the environment, and a traditionally liberal foreign policy. The GOP could go in a variety of directions in response to all of this, with its final destination yet to be determined. Republicans could go the conventional route and nominate a Sarah Palin, who will likely call for more tax cuts, social conservatism, and military involvement in the Middle East, thus making the Republican Party seem no better than the Democrats to the growing throngs of voters who want less government both at home and abroad. Or the GOP could nominate the candidate most dissimlar to President Obama in former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who, like Ron Paul, wants the U.S. out of the Middle East, and wants to scale back government in both the economic and cultural arenas. Or Republicans may decide to nominate a Romney to run from the center-right and talk both about modest tax cuts and modest deficit cuts, leaving an opening for a fire-breather to run third party.
http://race42008.com/2010/01/09/mccainlieberman-2012-it-could-happen/
Over the course of the race for 2008, I often quipped that I was “waiting for Perot” with regard to the dearth of a meaningful third party candidate in the race. The pun, of course, referenced the play, “Waiting for Godot,” which involved two characters waiting in vain for a third character (Godot) who never manages to show up. The Perot of 2008, I suggested, would fill the vacuum in a race between Bush Republicanism and a standard issue Democratic ticket by providing voters with a small-government, anti-war alternative. Had Ron Paul decided to run third party in 2008, he probably would have filled that void, though in the end, the market for a third party candidate dried up as Obama managed to present himself to the public as an ideologically amorphous managerial candidate whose claim to fame was that he wasn’t George W. Bush.
As we approach the race for 2012, the market for a third party candidate once again has the potential to develop depending on how things play out over the next couple of years as each major party struggles to find its voice in post-Clinton, post-Bush America. The Democrats appear to be moving decidedly leftward, embracing bigger government, more central planning, more debt, cultural bossiness on issues like the environment, and a traditionally liberal foreign policy. The GOP could go in a variety of directions in response to all of this, with its final destination yet to be determined. Republicans could go the conventional route and nominate a Sarah Palin, who will likely call for more tax cuts, social conservatism, and military involvement in the Middle East, thus making the Republican Party seem no better than the Democrats to the growing throngs of voters who want less government both at home and abroad. Or the GOP could nominate the candidate most dissimlar to President Obama in former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who, like Ron Paul, wants the U.S. out of the Middle East, and wants to scale back government in both the economic and cultural arenas. Or Republicans may decide to nominate a Romney to run from the center-right and talk both about modest tax cuts and modest deficit cuts, leaving an opening for a fire-breather to run third party.
http://race42008.com/2010/01/09/mccainlieberman-2012-it-could-happen/