“President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are not the only two candidates running for president.”
“There are a slew of third-party contenders running for the nation’s highest office, pleading with the media and voters to give them a chance. Their chances of winning are virtually nil, but they — especially libertarian candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson — could affect the close Obama-Romney race in key swing states.”
“Besides Johnson, other major third-party contenders include Jill Stein of the Green Party and former Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode representing the Constitution Party.”
“Johnson has the most potential to play spoiler in states like Colorado, Nevada and even New Hampshire. But he is actually polling highest in his former state of New Mexico, where some polls show him taking up to 6 percent of the vote in a state Obama is expected to win. Goode may perform well in his former Virginia congressional district, stealing votes from Romney in the tight state.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82901.html#ixzz2ARsBNN7m
Comments removed from this thread; see archive.org to find them.
Third party candidates want the same things as any candidate wants – some good sex, a good buzz, a decent sandwich, and a fistful of cash. Maybe not in that order.
Spoilers are things you put on the back of your car to make it look cool as shit. Well, maybe not all that cool. I guess it depends on what trailer park you live in.
Writers invoke the “spoiler” meme because they think they need an excuse to cover candidates outside the bipartisan party. They won’t cover our candidates just to give us free publicity.
Dave Nolan started The Libertarian Party because he assumed if you just put a candidate on the ballot that would get free coverage in the news media. But there is in reality very little free coverage unless you also have a well-funded campaign, or unless the reporters can think of an angle, and spoiler is an angle.
Be glad that you consider our candidates spoilers – or they would give us even less coverage.
Because “Libertarians are disaffected Republicans” ties into both previous history and Ron Paul’s efforts at transforming the GOP from within. Sure, it’s a faulty narrative, but it’s one that lazy reporters can regurgitate to sound ‘insightful’.
They will not do so, because they are told that they are obligated to include that from their corporate masters, just as every article right now on Johnson is obligated to include the non-factor quote by the RNC idiot Prebius (or whatever the name is). The Lamestream Media and Punidiots cannot do any better because they also don’t know any better.
When are reporters going to stop writing about Gary Johnson with that “spoiler” label? It has been shown over and over that his voters come from the ranks of people who would otherwise vote for Obama, and from the ranks of people who would otherwise vote for Romney, in approximately equal numbers. And some of the Johnson voters wouldn’t vote at all if he weren’t running.