2008 Election Results (President, Senate, House)

Here are live, up-to-the-minute, results for the presidential, Senate and House elections…

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VIDEO: SNL and Ralph Nader

How to Challenge Democratic and Republican Ideas

Everyone once in a while, I’ll see a passionate defense of third party voting in the general election, even if there’s no chance of them winning. The defense always goes something like this:

Because they work together (along with the media) to effectively-silence debate outside of Democrats and Republicans in elections. And I feel real change will come when a third party candidate wins the Presidency. Not saying McCain and Obama can’t implement “change” but it’s always colored in two-party political paint. No disrespect to those who support Democrats and Republicans.

I think this view is patently ridiculous. Here’s why.

It’s true, there’s only two winnable candidates in the general election. And if we lived in a Parliamentary Democracy, there might be more, or at least have a system where a third party vote is not wasted. So if you want to argue for a Constitutional Convention for that, go ahead.

The reality of the current system, though, is that there’s two entrenched parties. This has proven to not be just a historical quirk, but an entrenched electoral reality. However, what is possible is to dramatically change what these parties stand for. Parties often change what they stand for. In fact, up until 1860, there was even great fluctuation in the names of the parties and identities. Now, that change takes place on a lower level. Republicans today stand for many different things than they did in 1920, for instance. And even now, there’s intense discussion of where conservatism and Republicans go should McCain lose as badly as it seems.

The operative question for people not happy with what the parties stand for should be: How do we change what these parties stand for. Libertarians now should be chomping at the bit to dramatically affect the future of the GOP. But even before now, there’s the question of primaries. Ron Paul did far, far more for the cause of libertarians by running in the primaries than Barr or even Paul himself did by running as a third party candidate.

Third party voting is essentially small scale tyranny of the minority: some people who would otherwise have a preference in the real election that decide to abdicate any choice just to make themselves feel better. The money and resources that are poured into third parties would be far better spent trying to influence the direction of a party, instead of glorifying a vanity campaign by a former government official.

In short, I find the core excuse behind third party voting to be dramatically proven untrue. Anything Ralph Nader wanted to promote through his campaign he probably could have done in such a way as to not siphon votes from Al Gore. If libertarians put more effort into pushing the GOP towards them and not building a wall around themselves and demanding purity, they’d probably be better off too in the long run.

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Third Party Debate Cancelled

We were prepared to liveblog any event that does happen, but no candidate wants to appear opposite any other candidate at the same event. 

 

Barr claimed a conflict while McKinney opted for an online debate originally scheduled for that evening. Baldwin was reluctant to travel to New York. Nader was willing to participate, aides say, but, seeing the debate falling apart all week, held back.

McKinney, it turns out, also had another reason for staying in her hometown of Atlanta, said her running mate, Rosa Clemente. McKinney is attending the Black Panther Party annual reunion.

 

So much for these runs being about ideas instead of egos.

In short, the excuses:

 

• Bob Barr thinks he’s above the event; he considers himself the third wheel in the general election, not among this rabble.
• Ralph Nader doesn’t want to be the only one to commit, which would telegraph his desparation. 
• Cynthia McKinney does not want to leave the Black Panther convention.
• Chuck Baldwin does not want to fly into New York City.

 

They’re ridiculous.

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Will Bob Barr Show Up To The Third Party Debate?

This Sunday at Columbia University, the third party debate is being held. Chuck Baldwin, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader have all indicated that they intend on attending. Bob Barr has resisted because he wants to debate only Ralph Nader. That’s right, the Libertarian party candidate is too uppity to debate anyone else, even a fellow former member of Congress (McKinney) or someone endorsed by Ron Paul (Baldwin) - an endorsement that Barr quite openly sought.

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Bob Barr Snubs Ron Paul And Other Third Party Candidates

The GOP and the Democratic Parties may have a monopoly on mainstream press coverage, but they certainly don’t have one on drama in presidential campaigns. While talk of lipstick and pigs has dominated the airwaves the past couple days, the impudence from the rest of the campaign has gone unnoticed.

Yesterday, Ron Paul held a press conference at the National Press Club to discuss third party issues. See our post on this event here. Joining Paul at this event were third party candidates Cynthia McKinney (Green Party), Ralph Nader (Independent) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party); Bob Barr was supposed to attend, but he was a no-show. And so the drama begins…

Asked about Barr’s apparent no-show, Libertarian Party Media Director issued the following statement:

The real question is why Bob, who is a major player in this election, want to be on stage with people like McKinney, who stands against everything the LP does, and Baldwin, who is barely on enough ballots to have a statistical chance of winning.

Barr is not a minor party candidate. Barr is a major player this year.

He is holding his own press conference right now.

According to the AP, Barr’s stated reason for not attending the event was that Paul did not endorse a specific candidate.  So, clearly there is a bit of a tension there between the Libertarian Party’s communications and Barr’s.

Don Rasmussen, Campaign For Liberty Events Coordinator, tells of being told to “go f*ck himself” by the Barr campaign when he questioned Barr’s no-show [h/t IPR]:

I asked Barr Communications Director Shane Corey after the event why they pulled this stunt and was told to go f*** myself.

Barr Campaign Manager Russ Verney may have fanned the flames by criticizing Paul’s efforts Read more

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Ron Paul Rallies Silent Majority, Discusses Third Party Candidacies At Vote-Your-Heart Press Conference

Yesterday, Ron Paul held a Vote-Your-Heart press conference where he discussed the issue of Third Party Candidacies. Although Ron Paul is not currently a presidential candidate, he does still have a large following and is continuing to advocate the issues that are important to him with his Campaign For Liberty movement. Paul was joined by three third party candidates - Cynthia McKinney (Green Party), Ralph Nader (Independent) and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party). Notably, Bob Barr (Libertarian Party) was supposed to join Paul, but he was a no show.

In his remarks, Paul first announced the Four Principles signed onto by the Third Party Candidates involved in this effort.

Then, he recounted how the McCain Campaign contacted him on September 9th for the first time.  They requested that Paul endorse McCain at this event. Their reasoning per Paul was that “[McCain] would do a little less harm than the other candidate.”

Next, he went on to assail the two party system as not offering a real choice, saying: Read more

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2008Central.net Presidential Election Podcast (06/29/08)

Today, we take a look back at this week in the election and also have an in-depth discussion about the Obama Campaign’s general election strategy.

[Subscribe to 2008Central.net's Presidential Election Podcast]

Feel free to email us questions/suggestions for our next podcast (you can also email an audio file of your question and we’ll include it in the podcast).

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Ralph Nader Is Your Crazy Uncle Who Says Bizarre Things

I don’t even need to comment on this. But I will anyways:

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”

Frankly, if Karl Rove had said this, it would set off a far bigger firestorm than just the country club comments that he recently made.

The strangest thing about Ralph Nader is that apparently no one ever told him that in order to be elected president in America, you have to build a broad coalition. At this point, he’s just an old man ranting about big bad corporations and playing the race card with all the subtlety of Al Sharpton.

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Notes From The Rest Of The Campaign…

Virtually all the coverage is focused on John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So, what else is going on in Presidential Election land? Some notes…

• Politically irrelevant (and justifiably so) candidate, Daniel Imperato draws the ire of a librarian. Apparently, Imperato has been placing press releases framed as news stories in foreign news release services that are subsequently getting pick up by Google News and Yahoo News and making their way into readers mailboxes. Some headlines from Imperato’s stealth stories (I do not suggest reading them):
  • Imperato on the Road to Recovery after Surgery - An article about Imperato’s “major eye surgery”
  • 2008 US Presidential Candidate and Papal Knight D. Imperato Named as Grand Prior of Orden Bonaria for the US and Canada, & Wife Jan Deborah
  • Media Alert: The G8 Summit: Subject Africa; Presidential Hopeful Dan Imperato Comments on the G8 Summit and Their Dealings with Africa
  • Leading 2008 Presidential Candidate Imperato Speaks on Corporate America
• Some guy’s been fasting for 3 weeks in hopes of persuading Nader to drop his bid for the presidency. Thus far, this effort has been unsuccessful and will likely remain so, especially given that in the recent Zogby poll, Nader’s polling between 5-6% nationally (caveat emptor: it’s Zobgy). Also, Nader’s picked a running mate - Matt Gonzalez.
• Libertarian George Phillies leads his rivals in individual contributions, which will no doubt be one of his arguments at the Libertarian Party’s Convention (they choose their nominee at the convention). At a recent Libertarian candidates debate, Phillies argued that he had the strongest organization (or one of the strongest organizations) of all the candidates (video of the debate available here). For what it’s worth, Phillies’ claim is probably true. Of all the Libertarian candidates, he’s certainly the most active based on my experience/research/reading.
• In a bold move demonstrating what can only be characterized as confidence, Democratic contender Mike Gravel (yes he’s still in the race despite what you may have heard) has expressed support for Green party hopeful Jesse Johnson. I guess this means the pain train is headed for one of Johnson’s Green Party nomination rivals, Cynthia McKinney?
• Behind, Behind The Scenes: Sam Nunn’s been mentioned as a potential running mate for Mike Bloomberg, when talk of a Bloomberg run was in vogue (but that’s soo yesterday) and there was also talk of him running as an independent a while back. Last month, an article Newsweek named Nunn as a suggested Secretary of State for Obama. Recently, George Will upped the ante by suggesting that Obama pick Nunn as his running mate. Historical note: Nunn was also mentioned as a potential running mate for Kerry in 2004. It’s highly unlikely that Nunn would make Obama’s short list, even with Nunn’s respect as an independent person. Moreover, even if Nunn was on that VP list, it’s also unlikely that he’d accept. But, at least George Will is trying, right?

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Ralph Nader’s In, Obama And Clinton React…

Yesterday, on Meet The Press, Ralph Nader announced his candidacy for president this election, saying:

Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. Twenty-four percent of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That’s about the lowest ranking ever. Sixty-one percent think both major parties are failing. And, according to Frank Luntz’s poll, a Republican, 80 percent would consider voting for a independent this year. Now, you take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine/Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through, and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the–all, all the candidates–McCain, Obama and Clinton–are against single payer health insurance, full Medicare for all. I’m for it, as well as millions of Americans and 59 percent of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don’t like Pentagon waste, a bloated military budget, all the reports in the press and in the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That’s off the table to Obama and Clinton and McCain.

The issue of labor law reform, repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley Act that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests. Cracking down on corporate crime. The media–the mainstream media repeatedly indicating how trillions of dollars have been drained and fleeced and looted from millions of workers and investors who don’t have many rights these days, and pensioners. You know, when you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington, D.C., be corporate-occupied territory, every department agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions, turning the government against its own people, you–one feels an obligation, Tim, to try to open the doorways, to try to get better ballot access, to respect dissent in America in the terms of third parties and, and independent candidates; to recognize historically that great issues have come in our history against slavery and women rights to vote and worker and farmer progressives, through little parties that never ran–won any national election. Dissent is the mother of ascent. And in that context, I have decided to run for president.

Nader’s entrance into the campaign is more significant for the Democrats than Republicans. Accordingly, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton responded to the news.

Barack Obama:

“I think anybody has the right to vote for president if they file sufficient papers. And I think the job of the Democratic Party is to be so compelling that a few percentage of the vote going to another candidate’s not going to make any difference.”

[When reporters reminded Obama that Nader had said some not-so nice things about him, Obama replied]

“He had called me and I think reached out to my campaign. My sense is that Mr. Nader is somebody who if you’re — don’t listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you’re not substantive. He seems to have a pretty high opinion of his own work. Now, and by the way, I have to say that historically, he is a singular figure in American politics and has done as much as just about anybody on behalf of consumers. So in many ways, he is a heroic figure and I don’t mean to diminish him, but I do think there’s a sense now that um, you know if somebody’s not hewn to the Ralph Nader agenda then you, you must be lacking in some way.”

Hillary Clinton:

“Obviously it’s not helpful to whoever our Democratic nominee is. But it’s a free country.

“I don’t know what party he’ll run on. Where did he run on last time? Does anybody remember? … Was it on the Green Party?

“Well, you know, his being on the Green Party (ticket) prevented Al Gore from being the greenest president we could have had, and I think that’s really unfortunate. I think we paid a big price for it.”

[Photo Credit: Achievement.org]

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Friday Afternoon Roundup

Rudy Giuliani

This editorial in Human Events strongly endorses Giuliani’s record as mayor as being ‘Reaganesque’ - he cut taxes and balanced the city’s budget. You’ll see more of this on Giuliani - conservatives either strongly ensorsing or condemning him, depending on the topic. He’s going to make for an interesting campaign season…. Giuliani will speak at the World AG Expo near Fresno, continuing courting the California vote. … Giuliani has not convinced and will never probably ever convince abortion advocates that he is on their side… The Giuliani campaign hired a PR firm with ties to the Bushes…

Barack Obama

Obama will announce for the Presidency tomorrow, and preparations are under way already. Students are going wild for him the way they did for Dean last cycle… This article is a long retrospective on Obama, from his playing poker with state senators (he played tight, and usually won), to his long term goals (he’s been building national support for years, not just recently) to his future win or lose. It’s a decent recap of what Obama-mania is, and the controversies (such as race) surrounding it… Obama will hold a fundraiser in Cincinnati on Feb. 26… Obama calling abortion a ‘personal tragedy’ is not enough to get him a pass from Pro-life / anti-abortion groups. I expect this is the first shot against the Democratic candidates of a salvo that will last through the elections…

Hillary Clinton

Clinton came out strongly against Palestinian textbooks that refer to Israelis using such language as ‘Zionist Gangs.’ “We must stop the propaganda to which Palestinian children are exposed. … These children deserve an education that instills respect for life and peace instead of glorifying death and violence.” I imagine there will no candidate in their right mind would oppose her on this issue. Here is a summary of the general relationship between Hillary and Israel. … Hillary’s going to New Hampshire tomorrow. …

Tommy Thompson

Thompson opened an office in Iowa, and will hire a field director and some staffers.

John McCain

McCain recruited more help in Alabama… McCain is supporting legislation in favor of more stringent internet regulation…. McCain will hold a fundraiser in Cincinatti on Feb. 16…

Newt Gingrich

Rupert Murdoch called for Gingrich to run for President, specifically citing the ‘gravitas’ than Ginrich would add the campaign.

Tom Vilsack

Vilsack released the name of over 1100 supporters in Iowa, and his campaign compared his grassroots effort to that of John Kerry. Vilsack specifically stated, “Our campaign is making the kind of early investment of time and resources to secure more early support than any presidential candidate in either party. We’ll use this organization to talk to Iowa voters about our plan to bring change to America, make us independent of Mideast oil and get our troops out of harm’s way in Iraq.”

Joseph Biden

Biden introduced a bill to hire 1,100 more FBI agents. In a press release, Biden states, “Fighting terrorism is and should be a top priority for the FBI, but we can’t forget about domestic crime - we have to walk and chew gum at the same time. … In the wake of 9/11, the FBI was right to shift its focus to preventing terror, but violent crime all across the nation is rising at startling rates. Overworked and overburdened FBI agents have been forced to cast aside a wide array of critical cases ranging from drug probes to violent street gangs to white collar investigations. FBI field agents need back up and this bill will help answer that call.”

Mike Huckabee

Tom DeLay endorsed Mike Huckabee. This article finds that to be a kiss of death - but it could also be the kiss of credibility that his campaign needs desparately right about now. … Huckabee announced that a State School Board member and a former City Chair of the Manchester Republican Committee will co-chair his exploratory committee in New Hampshire. Those aren’t incredibly big names…

Mitt Romney

Romney continues the fight regarding abortion. He’ll need a lot of meetings like this to get real traction on the issue in time for the primaries. He also talks about Iraq and supporting the Bush administration in general …

Dennis Kucinich

Kucinich has a twelve step plan for ending the war in Iraq and rebuilding their political system and economy…. Some people feel strongly about the Dept. of Peace, apparently. I’m still not sure what Constitutionally makes it more than a local law enforcement issue. Anyone want to take that one? There’s a lot of fluff in those letters - one written by who I presume is his wife (why I’m even linking the article) - and not a lot answering the ‘how’ questions that voters tend to care about….

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader’s movie is screening now (it’s about him, and not by him - there are critical parts, in other words).

Odds and Ends

- A look at the general experience factor of the Democratic field. The underbelly of the polls, in particular, has strong experience…

- George Stephanopoulos will moderate the Carson City forum.

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Nader Talks Clinton, Bloomberg, Gravel, Kucinich

Ralph Nader was on CNN’s Late Edition and spoke about a few topics with Wolf Blitzer. Among the things he said:

- It’s too early to decide for him whether to run or not run. He does not like long campaigns.

- Regarding Hillary Clinton, he stated, “I don’t think she has the fortitude. Actually she’s really a panderer and a flatterer. As she goes around the country, you’ll see more of that.” He said he might be more encouraged to run should she win the nomination.

- He likes the records of Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich.

- He thinks Bloomberg might give Hillary a run. “I think her main problem may well be right in New York City, Michael Bloomberg. They’re talking in the Bloomberg camp of a possible run. I’m saying he’ll give more diversity, for sure, and he’ll focus on urban problems. But I might say, he’s got the money to do it.”

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Will Nader Run?

Ralph Nader, who’s promoting his book, The Seventeen Traditions, appeared on NBC’s Today Show this morning. Of note, he refused to rule out a run for president in 2008. When questioned by Meredith Vieira, Nader replied that it was “too early to say.” After being pressed, he said, “Well there’s always a chance but I like other people. In fact there are a lot of people who think Bill Moyers should run because he’s had this White House experience with Lyndon Johnson and of course is a great communicator”

Given the situation in Iraq, I’m not exactly running someone who reminds people of LBJ and Vietnam War is a good idea. Frankly, the only person I’d ever take seriously from the Johnson Administration is George Ball (and sadly, he’s dead). Regardless, I wonder if Nader could throw another wrench in the Democrats’ plans.

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