Ron Paul may still get a nomination. Lets see what happens.
Two-party presidential race faces challenge
By Richard McGregor in Washington
Quietly, away from the hubbub of the Republican primaries campaign and Barack Obama's frenetic efforts to revive his fortunes, a new organisation has begun work to throw a mighty wrench in the gears of both major parties.
With $30m in privately raised funds from large and small donors, Americans Elect is building the online infrastructure to find an alternative candidate to run against the nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties.
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The body has signed on well-known Republicans and Democrats and former political and military figures, who say they are disillusioned with the crushing conformity of the two dominant parties at a time of national crisis.
"I would do anything to disrupt the status quo," said Mark McKinnon, who worked on campaigns for George W. Bush. "I have worked for 30 years on both sides of the aisle and am frustrated that nothing ever seems to get done."
Headquartered in Washington, the body's website is run from New York and the ballot issues from San Diego. Its 143 employees have a single aim: finding a credible candidate.
Michael Toner, a former head of the Federal Election Commission, said third-party candidates have traditionally struggled to get over electoral laws and ballot-access rules to allow them to run.
"A third-party candidate likely would need to be a major self-funder to be potentially viable, someone capable of contributing $100m-$200m of their own money into their campaign," he said. "In short, someone like Michael Bloomberg."
Profile: Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg is a dream to head any alternative presidential ticket. He has been both a Republican and Democrat; made a fortune as a businessman and hence has the firepower to fund a campaign; and has also been elected to and done one of the most high-profile jobs in the country, as New York Mayor. Mr Bloomberg would win support from independent voters and damage Mr Obama above all.
Mr Bloomberg, the New York mayor and a self-made billionaire, has flirted with running for president but never committed. Associates say he would not run unless he thought he could win.
On the libertarian right, Ron Paul, a Texas congressman and candidate in the Republican primary for the 2012 presidential poll, could be a contender if his fractious party chooses an insufficiently conservative nominee to face Mr Obama.
Profile: Ron Paul
A fixture on the national political scene, Ron Paul is also a hardy perennial in presidential races. He ran for the Libertarian Party in 1988 and is running for the Republican nomination for the second time in 2012. A fringe figure among the mainstream parties who opposes America's overseas wars and wants to get rid of the Federal Reserve, he nonetheless has a strong following in parts of the country and has raised millions of dollars for his presidential race. A Paul candidacy would hurt the Republicans.
Third party candidates can be decisive. Businessman Ross Perot and activist Ralph Nader in 1992 and 2000 respectively cost George Bush Snr and Al Gore the elections in the eyes of many members of their parties.
Mr McKinnon said Mr Perot snared nearly 20 per cent of the vote and the number of Americans who thought the country was on the wrong track was "45 points worse now".
Americans Elect is the brainchild of Peter Ackerman, a wealthy financier with a longstanding interest in non-violent civil resistance who has contributed more than $5m of his own money to get it off the ground.
"Ideological extremes have come to dominate US politics, and unless you represent those extremes, you cannot participate in a meaningful way," said his son, Elliot Ackerman, the body's chief operating officer.
The body does not advocate policies or promote candidates and campaigns, to avoid being regulated as a political entity, and aims simply to get over the expensive and logistically difficult issue of qualifying for the ballot.
So far, Americans Elect has qualified in eight states and aims to have all 50 by next year, in time for an online nominating process to choose a candidate by mid-2012. In California alone, qualifying for the ballot means getting 1.6m signatures, which Americans Elect has done.
To give the process a bipartisan lustre, any registered Democrat or Republican who gets through the early rounds to compete for the final nomination must choose a running-mate from the other party.
While not doubting Americans Elect's aims, Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, said it was odd that a body that advocates transparency has a structure that conceals the identity of its donors.
In depth: US presidential elections 2012
Republican contenders are vying for the presidential nomination of the party in an attempt to unseat Barack Obama in 2012
"I can imagine wealthy Republican hedge fund types thinking the best way to get rid of Obama would be to find a moderate to run as an independent," he said.
He said an independent candidate elected president in any case would be even less effective than someone from the traditional parties, as they would have no power base in Congress.
Matt Miller, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress and a supporter of the body, said people in Washington tended to pat him on the head and say "that's a nice little internet thing you've got going there".
"But there is an empty chair in every debate and every conversation," he said. Once Americans Elect announce it is on the ballot in all 50 states, he added, people would really sit up and take notice.
Article is on FT.com
The thing is even if he tries to come in through a third party, they will do to him what they did to Ralph Nader when he first ran in 2000. Exclude him from the pre-election debates, sideline any other candidate that is a threat. The American machine is well wired enough to ensure that it remains a two party system.
Sometimes I fall off the chair when I read articles in American media criticizing the "One Party" System in China.
India's democracy is messy, regional, communal, casteist and all that but it is at least a true democracy.
