Third Party Presidential Candidates

In my humble opinion...the only reason third parties are not viabel right now because of the American voters mind set. They think they HAVE to vote for either the republican party or the democratic party. They might like a third party candidate but they think and are told that it is "throwing their vote away". So they vote for a candidate they don't like as well who they think has a better chance at winning. Which is sad. The media plays a big part in it. They ignore third party candidates a lot. They marginize them. MSNBC last night was actually talking about how "horrible" third parties are and how they should go away because they bleed votes from the two major parties.They were talking about how people voting for Nadar cost the democrats the election against Bush. So the media tells people not to really look at or take seriously third party candidates.They also put down poeple who vote third party as being a "problem". Plus both major parties DO NOT want a viable third party. So they do whatever they can to keep people in the "two party" mindset. Until the American public opens up their view, get out of the "two party" mindset and starts looking at all the candidates and voting for who they like the best (reguardless of party) third parties will have a really hard time being viable.

The reason third party candidates will never get elected is because everyone believes it is impossible for a third party candidate to get elected. Yeah it is hard, but as long as everyone keep to the logic that a vote for a third party candidate is a waisted vote because they cannot get elected, well they will keep not getting elected. Electoral college so what, all you have to do is win the state. If you can convenience enough people in a state to vote for you, you win that state's electoral votes.

The people elected to the Electoral College vote according to the votes of the people in a winner take all at the state level (except I believe one state that allows proportional representation - delegates are divided by who won each congressional district and the two state votes go to the one who wins the state) so it is very difficult for a third party candidate to win enough states to win the election. If the Electoral college can not elect the president then it goes to congress (12th Amendment) where each state has one vote. Since Congress is controlled by the two parties they will not elect a third party candidate. What a third party candidate will do is take votes from the party which is closest to their views. As what happened to Bush vs Clinton vs Perot and Bush vs Gore vs Nader. Many people blame Perot for Bushes loss and many people blame Nader for Gore's loss. For a third party candidate to be successful for president you have to enough third party members in congress to negotiate a deal. Third party candidates can make a difference in the primary and local elections. They can show the thinking of the people and the major parties might or will change to follow the trend. This may take a while.

Well you're just talking about the presidential election. That's a tough place to start. You really have to work from the ground up. Start with local and state elections. Show what the third parties can accomplish on a smaller scale and people will see them as more realistic on a larger scale. After that you can try and get a few third party people in congress, the senate, and eventually one might have a real shot at the presidency.

The American electoral system makes it very difficult. The winner-takes-all quality of the electoral college makes it particularly difficult. It would be next to impossible for a third party candidate to win any state. If a third party candidate was popular enough or had enough money, he could change the outcome of the election by taking votes from one of the major candidates. ('92 election) But, still, it is difficult to get points with the electoral college system.