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":

• Exclusive: Expanding the Debate with Third-Party Candidates Jill Stein, Virgil Goode, Rocky Anderson

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:

• Join us for the Google+ presidential debates this week!

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¢.