Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The brainchild of hedge fund operators, the shadowy 501(c)(4) Americans Elect (not a political party) promised to select a bipartisan ticket for president and vice president through online voting in a virtual convention. Yeah, that fraud ain't gonna happen.
Ed Kilgore writes today at the Politcal Animal blog Americans Unelect:
As you probably know, the start-time for the online “primary” being conducted by the shadowy if much ballyhooed “centrist” group Americans Elect has come and gone, and the organization is publicly admitting that under its own rules it won’t have a candidate for president, due to a lack of interest among potential candidates and “delegates” alike.
It’s pretty shocking that even with the bait of general-election ballot access in 27 states and counting, AE couldn’t attract a candidate capable of getting 1,000 online votes from 10 states. Kinda makes you wonder about its foundational belief that the only barrier to a victorious presidential ticket embracing a vague if deficit-hawky “bipartisanship” was the entrenched opposition of the major parties.
* * *
Presumably AE could delay its timetable and hope someone (Buddy Roemer?) eventually crosses the bar to become a nominatable candidate. It could lower its already pathetically low threshold for candidate viability. Or it could just make a mockery of the entire bottom-up process that is supposedly the group’s signature and pick a candidate (or candidates) to put forward, assuming anybody even remotely credible out there would accept the damaged goods of a nomination.
Assuming AE is unlikely to just call the whole thing off, I’d suggest they cut to the chase and nominate their most prominent backer, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, as the nominee. Under AE’s elaborate rules, he’d presumably have to disclose a party affiliation and then choose a running-mate from a different party. But he could certainly self-identify as a member of the Friedman Party, and then choose a running-mate from the Party of Richard Cohen or the Party of Robert Samuelson or the Party of David Brooks. It would be a Very Serious Ticket.
Bonus for a Thomas Friedman – David Brooks ticket — they would have to step down from their jobs and not be able to publish their hacktacular crappy columns.
UPDATE: Steve Benen has more in The death of a dubious idea. And Paul Krugman wishes Americans Elect good riddance, and reminds us yet again: "There’s already a centrist party; it’s known as the Democratic Party."
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Americans Elect is a defective concept. They expected to attract a stellar politician who would win millions of disaffected voters. Instead, they attracted only political failures or unknowns who obtained a mere few thousand votes. Why would they expect anything different?
Stellar politicians today are either Republicans or Democrats. A stellar politician who would attract millions of voters would know that it is politically impossible to win the presidency as a third party candidate. The most a third party candidate could do would be to act as a spoiler, splitting the vote of his own party, Republican or Democrat, so the other party’s candidate would win. No stellar politician would want to be the cause of that “treachery” to his party compatriots.
If, by some miracle the AE candidate won, how could he/she ever accomplish anything as president? He would have no AE members in Congress to work with. Every member of Congress would be in the opposition party, with his former party members hating him the most. There would be increased gridlock as every member of Congress would want the AE president to fail, to prove that the whole AE idea does not work.
AE should have started first at winning seats in state offices and in Congress, before aiming at the presidency. No athlete runs his first race at the Olympics. Why did the AE donors think they could start first at the highest political office?
The only reason Buddy Roemer is seeking the nomination is that he has had a failed political career and could never expect to be elected to anything again.
He was one of the worst governors in Louisiana history. He could not get along with people, put together a competent staff, or pass legislation. He did not work hard and seemed to love the adoration of his campaign followers but had no ability to govern. Read this excellent history of Louisiana’s governors, pages 259-268:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Y-0-kmu4vk0C&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=%22Often+wrong,%22+Roemer&source=bl&ots=GXt38E_jVv&sig=poXJMn9QbCUESjDIP2-foOb3YLY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=n-xjT7CXDOORiQL8n_SiDw&ved=0CGMQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22Often%20wrong%2C%20but%20never%20in%20doubt%22%20Roemer&f=false
Even today, he is Louisiana’s most UNfavorite son. A recent PPP poll in LA rated him the most unpopular presidential candidate, with only 28% rating him favorably to 56% with a negative opinion– a 2:1 unfavorable rating in his home state! http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/03/santorum-leads-by-14-in-louisiana.html#more
As a Louisiana political commentator quipped, in typical bayou style:
“Buddy Roemer, who has been out of politics for 19 years, couldn’t win an election as a dogcatcher in Louisiana, much less the Presidency of the United States.”
http://www.337post.com/yoyo/110309-roemer.html
As the Supreme Leader of the Arizona Americans Elect Party, I cannot argue with anything you say about the national effort. But these people graciously gave us a fifth recognized political party in Arizona and other states, and we now have about 150 Arizona voters, including myself, registered as members of the AEP. Some of us will be running for office in November and on the ballot along with the candidates of the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Green parties.
Stefin Hehman is gathering the necessary petitions to qualify for the Americans Elect Party primary as a candidate for Corporation Commission. If you are an AEP member or a voter not affiliated with any party, you can go to the Secretary of State’s website and electronically sign his petition under the E-Qual program.
Others will be running as write-in candidates for Congress and the state legislature once the filing period for on-the-ballot primary candidates ends on May 30. Throughout the month of June and up till mid-July, if you are registered Americans Elect Party member (and of course it’s easy to become one online with our simple registration system; you can switch easily, just as the current Green Party candidate in the June AZ-08 special election, Charlie Manolakis, did, winning over 98% of the vote in the April 17 Green primary, after being a Democrat just before he filed — you too can be our party’s candidate in November.
And the great news is that under Arizona election law for “new” parties — this year that is Americans Elect and Greens — under Arizona Revised Statutes 16-645(D) — a write-in candidate can win the primary and be on the November ballot with a plurality of the vote. Thus, you can file as a write-in, vote for yourself, and you will win our party’s nomination if no other candidate has filed. I won the AZ-06 Green Party primary with 6 write-in votes, and both federal and state court challenges failed, ARS 16-645(D) being judged constitutional.
The Arizona Americans Elect Party is the cool new party in town where everyone is welcome. Join us; be our candidate for the State Senate or the U.S. Senate; and let’s give thanks to all of the people mentioned in AZBlueMeanie’s post for giving us this cool new party in the state of Arizona.
http://azamericanselect.blogspot.com