Should Ron Paul run as a third party?

[leftysergeant]

I think it would be interesting to se him siphon off votes that might have gone to the Republicans. Go, Ron, go!

Bite your tongue. He will get the same people who voted for Nader.

He will also get a lot of twoofers and dopers and anti-war types who think he has a chance of winning and waving the war away.

 

[HumanityBlues]

He is irrelevant either way

If he takes votes away from another candidate in a close general election, he's relevant.

 

[Humes fork]

How many here would actually vote for Ron Paul if he had a realistic chance of winning?

 

[Axiom_Blade]

Bite your tongue. He will get the same people who voted for Nader.

A few. But not all. Not the ones who read, anyway.
Since Nader's not running this year, I'll probably vote Green.

 

[Spindrift]

A few. But not all. Not the ones who read, anyway.
Since Nader's not running this year, I'll probably vote Green.

Seth Green is running for president?

 

[Minoosh]

I'm not enamored with Ron Paul or anything, but I do think it would be interesting to have him debate Obama and the eventual GOP candidate.

Clearly the thread title means, should Ron Paul run as a third party candidate?

But I kind of like the idea of Ron Paul being an actually party.

 

[HumanityBlues]

How many here would actually vote for Ron Paul if he had a realistic chance of winning?

Not me. But I do like the idea of someone who knows they are going to lose being in the presidential debates after the primaries. Ron Paul would never have to worry about saying the wrong thing.

 

[HumanityBlues]

Clearly the thread title means, should Ron Paul run as a third party candidate?

But I kind of like the idea of Ron Paul being an actually party.

The logistics would be difficult!

 

[Spindrift]

Not me. But I do like the idea of someone who knows they are going to lose being in the presidential debates after the primaries. Ron Paul would never have to worry about saying the wrong thing.

Ron Paul has never worried about saying wrong things.

 

[Almo]

Just keep telling yourself that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000

George W. Bush - 50,456,002 - 47.87%
Al Gore - 50,999,897 - 48.38%
Ralph Nader - 882,955 - 2.74%

If you can convince me that most Nader voters would have voted for Bush, I'll concede the point. I really, really doubt Nader voters would have voted for Bush.

 

[HumanityBlues]

Ron Paul has never worried about saying wrong things.

Conceded.

 

[Spindrift]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000

George W. Bush - 50,456,002 - 47.87%
Al Gore - 50,999,897 - 48.38%
Ralph Nader - 882,955 - 2.74%

If you can convince me that most Nader voters would have voted for Bush, I'll concede the point. I really, really doubt Nader voters would have voted for Bush.

Wasn't there some county in Florida where Nader got an inordinate amount of votes and if Gore had gotten them, he would have won Florida and hence the election.

 

[HumanityBlues]

Wasn't there some county in Florida where Nader got an inordinate amount of votes and if Gore had gotten them, he would have won Florida and hence the election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Florida,_2000

In Monroe and Alachua county Nader got the highest percentage.

 

[Almo]

So, yeah. Had Nader not run, it's unlikely the Florida court would have had to opportunity to mess with the election as they did. There are many factors that lead to the result in that election: the existence of the electoral college, poor design of voting ballots (in multiple ways), the court decisions, etc. But Nader running might have been the biggest, as it opened the door to the rest.

 

[Democracy Simulator]

How much support is "enough support"? The way I understood it, the debates are run by a committee made up of representatives from the two major parties, and they simply don't allow third parties into the debates...no matter how much support they have.

The 'official' rule is 15% across 5 national polls, but given that the commission is a stitch up between Dems and GOP then perhaps they would move the goalposts to exclude any threat.

 

[Robert Prey]

Heard some talk on the radio about the possibility. Let's be real, he's not going to win GOP nomination. So, do you think he should run as an independent? Do you think he could have the Nader effect?

I'm not enamored with Ron Paul or anything, but I do think it would be interesting to have him debate Obama and the eventual GOP candidate.

It's something Obama would pray for. If he ever prays,that is.

 

[leftysergeant]

It's something Obama would pray for. If he ever prays,that is.

Your ill-founded snarkiness is wearisome. It is quite likely that he prays. We have absolutely no reason to assume that he does not. That we do not normally see him doing so may be a result of his doing it right.

 

[Arisia]

If they would just stop running the Ron Paul pickup truck blowing up gov't agencies ad, he can do whatever he wants!
If he does run as a third party candidate, he will certainly pull some votes from the GOP candidate, making it even less likely that Obama will be a one-term President.

 

[Spindrift]

It's something Obama would pray for. If he ever prays,that is.

I hope he doesn't pray. I'd rather have a president who figures things out on his own than one who is hoping to have hallucinations of some old guy in the sky telling him what to do.

 

[Bikewer]

The Donald is holding out for a third-party run "if he doesn't like the Republican nominee"...
Meanwhile, some pundits are pointing out that Paul might win Iowa....