Is a Nonpartisan President an Option for 2012?

It’s not hard to find a bunch of information about the Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential election, but is a third party slowly creeping up to  take votes and funding away from the old boys’ clubs? Not since Ross Perot with his nasally voice and Napoleonic stature has someone taken the focus off of the main two political machines.
Realistically, will a third party nominee become the next president of our great nation? Not likely. But just the idea that some unknown businessman with charisma and agendas that are off the beaten track can run for president makes the political sport of democracy all the more interesting. (Heck, if Gary Coleman could run for the governor of California in the 2003 recall election, anything is possible!)

Americans Elect, which started in 2008, is vying to come up with a candidate to be on the ballot for all 50 states in the 2012 election. As of yet there is not a person determined to take this spot, but fundraising efforts and campaigning are well under way. 1.9 million signatures have been collected and $22 million has been raised for this group whose slogan is “pick a president, not a party.”

“’It’s a fascinating experiment in trying to empower the disenfranchised center in American politics,’ says Will Marshall, one of the group’s leaders and the president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist Democratic think tank in an Associated Press article. ‘It uses the power of the Internet and social media to provide a new means for political participation.’”

So how have third party nominees faired in the past? “Ross Perot got 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and 8 percent in 1996; John Anderson, 7 percent in 1980: and George Wallace, 13 percent in 1968. Ralph Nader drew just 3 percent of the vote as a Green Party candidate in 2000, but that included enough liberal votes in Florida to keep Democrat Al Gore from carrying the state and becoming president,” explains the AP report.

Here’s the bottom line: even with the president’s low approval rating and the Republican’s low fundraising dollars, I doubt a third party with truly pose any real threat. It’s like a guppy chasing a great white shark: fun to watch, but I don’t see fear in the shark’s eyes.

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