Interesting: Apparently it’s not inconceivable that both the Libertarian and Constitution Parties might siphon votes away from Bush, even to the point of tipping the election.
The main theme of these parties is that the present administration is out of control when it comes to spending and is not living up to its ideals of reduced government. Both also call for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
This could get interesting. We’ve been recording the increasing dissatisfaction of conservative pundits, and it seems that it might be spreading. (The article notes that the two parties are doing a good job of appealing to citizens at the grassroots level.) Could Bush be threatened by his very own Ralph Naders? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
1
By Angry Chinese Blogger
I wasn’t aware that there were more than two parties in the presidential elections, from US television you seem to get the impression that an independant can only stand at a local/state level and even then you had to be a nut to try ad take on the main candidates.
June 21, 2004 @ 10:56 pm | Comment
2
By richard
Well, a third-party candidate can, under the right circumstances, do pretty well as we saw in 1992, when Ross Perot took a heft percentage of the votes (forget the number), a major factor in Clinton’s victory. The key is they need to poll at 15 percent, at which point they qualify to participate in the national debates. Then they can make a real impact.
June 22, 2004 @ 8:41 am | Comment
3
By vaara
But even tiny third parties can change the outcome of an election, as we saw in Florida in 2000. There were a number of them that garnered just a couple of thousand votes apiece statewide; had those votes gone to Gore instead, he would be in the Oval Office today.
June 22, 2004 @ 8:53 am | Comment
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By richard
Absolutely — which is why these two parties can make a real difference, although in terms of actually wining they haven’t got a snowball’s chance in hell (thank God).
June 22, 2004 @ 9:19 am | Comment