Thursday, October 18, 2012

Election 2012: Expanding the Debate with Third-Party Candidates

We're not laboring under any illusion that any of these third-party "hopefuls" have a "snowball's chance in hell" of winding up in the White House, but the word's around town that one or more of them could conceivably play a "spoiler role"

In the aftermath of Tuesday's Presidential debate #2, we had a short conversation with one of our readers who offered a suggestion which we thought to be a great idea.  Inasmuch as most ballot-qualified U.S. Presidential candidates have been excluded from the national debate discussion by our so-called "2-party system," "why not shine the spotlight on the several non-major party candidates?" our alert and concerned reader asked.

That's right folks. We'll lay odds that there are some of these folks (all of whom are qualified to appear on Utah ballots) are candidates you may have never even heard of:

U.S. President
Federal - 4 year term
Candidate Website/Contact Info Campaign Finance Disclosures Party
Virgil Goode & Jim Clymer Virgil Goode Campaign Website Virgil Goode 2012 Constitution
Barrack Obama & Joe Biden Barrack Obama Campaign Website Barrack Obama 2012 Democratic
Jill Stein, & Cheri Honkala Jill Stein Campaign Website Jill Stein 2012 Green
Rocky Anderson & Luis Rodriguez Rocky Anderson Campaign Website Rocky Anderson 2012 Justice
Gary Johnson & James Gray Gary Johnson Campaign Website Gary Johnson 2012 Libertarian
Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan Mitt Romney Campaign Website Mitt Romney 2012 Republican

In that connection therefore, and taking advantage of the brief interlude before next Tuesday's Third Presidential debate, we'll provide a couple of links which our WCF reader provided us, just to make sure we've left no stones unturned as we ramp up to the November 6, 2012 General Election.

For starters, here's a handy link, wherein the Democracy Now website "re-air[s] parts of [Tuesday] night’s presidential debate, pausing the videotape to give third-party candidates [Jill Stein of the Green Party, Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode, and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson] a chance to respond to the same questions put to the major-party candidates":
And there's another similar online event happening this afternoon, featuring Green Party candidate Green and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Perhaps a few of our foamy-mouthed WCF political wonks will want to check it out:
And no, folks.  We're not laboring under any illusion that any of these third-party "hopefuls" have a "snowball's chance in hell" of winding up in the White House; but the word's around town that one or more of them could conceivably play a "spoiler role".


 Have at it, O Gentle Ones.

And whatever you do, don't neglect to throw in your own 2¢.

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