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Chuck Todd “stunned” no independent presidential candidate emerging

By PJO on July 11, 2015 9:38 AM

todd On NBC’s Meet The Press last Sunday, host Chuck Todd said he is “stunned that there hasn’t been a semi-significant independent candidate” considering a presidential run.

Todd said ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is “not really flirting with it. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, I think would like to be recruited to do it. I think he is sort of semi-interested. But there isn’t a Ross Perot. There isn’t somebody out there that I thought given this political environment would show up.”

10 Comments

  1. Andy Craig July 12, 2015

    I don’t think so.

    Presidential elections have never exactly been bastions of dignity and statesmanship, but the particular clown-car/train-wreck scenario of so many “serious” candidates running for a major party’s nomination is relatively unprecedented, at least in the modern primary era. Between declared and likely entrants, the count stands at 17 or 18. All but three of those (Trump, Carson, Fiorina), are current or former Governors or Senators. So far, no U.S. Representative has declared for 2016 and it’s unlikely any will- they’ve all been crowded out.

    In both 2008 and 2012, 7 Governors/Senators (an imperfect but decent proxy for the top-tier officeholders in the party), 2 or 3 Representatives, and 1 or 2 others ran for the GOP nomination, including those who dropped out before Iowa. And those were both considered historically crowded and open-field races.

  2. paulie July 11, 2015

    Have there ever been as many supposedly “major” or “serious” candidates seeking a presidential nomination as the Republicans have this time?

  3. Andy Craig July 11, 2015

    At this point, even their major party non-incumbent opponents weren’t running yet. Bill Clinton announced on October 3, 1991. Reagan announced on November 13, 1979. And Iowa hasn’t gotten that much earlier (February 10, 1992 and January 21, 1980).

  4. paulie July 11, 2015

    I used to work with Chuck. He’s a good guy. I’m sure he’s aware of the alternative parties; he’s referring to the lack of talk about a Perot-like (or even John Anderson-like) candidate.

    None of those candidates were running in the year before the election.

  5. paulie July 11, 2015

    Rebecca Pfleiderer is running. She’s the most qualified.

    All the most qualified candidates refer to themselves in the third person.

    However, Paul Frankel is not qualified, since he was born in the USSR, and he would not want to run even if he was.

  6. Election Addict July 11, 2015

    I think he must be speaking a different language.

  7. Mark Axinn July 11, 2015

    Who is this moron/talking head?

    Has he heard of the Green Party? The Libertarian Party? The Constitution Party?

    Johnson and Stein got 1.6MM votes in 2012 and both are likely repeats for their parties’ nominations in 2016.

  8. Bondurant July 11, 2015

    Trump could tap Don Imus.

    Fake Hair 2016.

  10. Rebecca L. Pfleiderer July 11, 2015

    Rebecca Pfleiderer is running. She’s the most qualified.

Comments are closed.