This has been a very unusual presidential election period, to say the very least.
We have the two most disliked major party candidates in recent history and one of those candidates is kind of nuts. The kind who is nuts. There are two so-called “third-party” candidates.
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, was a two-time governor of New Mexico. Green Party candidate Jill Stein is a habitual also-ran candidate who failed in bids for Congress, Massachusetts governor, Massachusetts House and for the commonwealth’s Secretary. Stein won only half of one percent of the votes in the 2012 election for president.
Since the presidential campaigns largely developed into two-party ones, many of the third party candidates largely ran to advance certain political beliefs and points of view. Some candidates actually thought they could win. Those campaigns are filed in history under “D” for delusional.
Today’s deep-down political narrative is not the the early morning Tweet-orgy from Donald Trump, who took to cyberspace to whine about the former Miss Universe whom he supposedly called her Miss Piggy, as well an ethnic slur. No, that narrative is the growing number of newspaper editorial boards that are making history by endorsing Hillary Clinton, or just making a stand against Trump.
Today, the nationwide USA Today released its first voting recommendation in its more than three-decades history. The Gannett publication noted its editorial board unanimous consensus that Trump was not fit for the presidency.
“From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week’s first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents,” the editorial stated.
The publication stopped short of recommending a presidential candidate, a move that many journalists, former journalists and semi-former journalists such as myself see as a lily-livered exercise.
More politicians and publications favoring Hillary Clinton for president have been out today on the stump telling the electorate that a vote for a third party candidate is essentially a vote for Trump.
Libertarian candidate Johnson and his Green Party counterpart have some decent attributes that I find agreeable.
Johnson’s “Allepo Moments” have become a running joke except to those of us getting up there in age whose every little forgetfulness is a concern.
Likewise, Stein has some positive ideas with which I agree. But she has others I cannot get behind.
And the major problems I have with the third-party candidates — Oh, I also think Libertarian VP candidate Bill Weld was a good choice — is they have an ice cube’s chance in hell in making any substantial showing.
I have previously mentioned here that I fear a 1998-like election rerun in which the outcome will have an extension such as Gore v. Bush. I hope not. I hope with all I can hope with and hope a little more. Because I am ready to get this election in our rear-view mirror. Unfortunately for me, the driver’s side-door mirror is my favored mirror and it got shattered yesterday when my little truck sideswiped a big truck. I’m just saying.
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