What If The General Election Stage Is As Crowded With Candidates As The Primaries Have Been?

[Purveyor]

November 27, 2007

What if Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani parlay their current leads in national polls into the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations?

And what if, spurred by the movement that has suddenly sprung full force around him, Ron Paul decides to take the Libertarian Party's nomination for president, as he did in 1988?

And what if, as many evangelical Christian leaders have promised, they actually do field a presidential candidate to run on issues such as abortion, gay rights and school prayer.

And what if someone, (Tom Tancredo?) decides that the race needs a strong advocate for sending undocumented immigrants back where they came from and strictly policing our borders?

On the Democratic side, the fractures don't look as deep, but Ralph Nader can always be depended on to jump into the race and pull up to 5% of the liberal vote.

And then there's Unity08, an independent movement that already has attracted more than 100,000 on line adherents, many deep-pocketed Democrats and Republicans among them.

The Unity08 website explains its mission this way: "We believe that neither of today's parties reflects the aspirations of the majority of Americans. Both are unduly influenced by special interests and by money,"

Some time in May Unity08 will have an on-line "convention" during which most anyone can be a delegate and vote to nominate a presidential ticket.

---EOE---

http://uspolitics.einnews.com:80/article.php?nid=374769

[wyldwolf]

1. interesting hypothetical

The process of actually getting them all on the ballot in all 50 states would be a circus.

[TwilightZone]

2. There are always a ton of candidates in every general election.

The trick is getting media coverage and getting invited to the debates.

[Clark2008]

3. Good - then I might have someone to vote for.

As it stands, the Democratic lineup sucks and the Republicans are worse.

I don't want ANY of these jokers to be president.

[lurky]

6. I feel your pain.

But if your state is close, please hold your nose and vote for the Dem.

The risk of another R presidency, with the continuation of the Neocons' insane policies would be an unspeakable disaster.

Even if the Dem nominee is a corporate, establishment, status-quo tool, the alternative is too horrible to even consider.

Sure, we are being taken for granted, but splintering will only get us another Florida 2000.

[aquart]

4. Good luck with the spoiler candidates.

If you don't plan to be a Democrat in the general election, wtf are you doing here?

[Purveyor]

5. If you are addressing 'that question' to me, you are out of line.

I posted the article because I found the speculation interesting.

There is life outside of DU you know and posting of political articles should be of interest to all.