Like victory in Iraq, 3rd-party president still distant dream
Some political third parties look at the crowded cluster of Republicans and Democrats vying for the White House and say, "Hey, why not throw our noble but unelectable candidate into that mix?"
Unity08 looks at the congested gaggle and says, "Why can't we just wade into those teeming political waters, pluck out a couple of candidates we can support and claim them as ours?"
And just like the big-boy parties, it can haul out a celebrity to create a buzz.
The TV show "Law and Order," which already has donated actor Fred Thompson to the cast running for president, now has fellow actor Sam Waterson stumping for Unity08. (I'm not sure if Thompson plays Law and Waterson plays Order, or if it's the other way around.)
The idea is to let Americans who register on the Unity08.com Web site pick (or even draft) a presidential dream team ticket consisting of the very best candidates from different parties. This way you could nominate a Unity08 ticket of say Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton (I'd pay money to see that joint victory party), or even a Socialist candidate and a Floridian running mate wearing a "Yikes! Go ahead and blame me. I voted for Nader" T-shirt.
"Unity08 is trying to get their name out there as much as possible to generate interest in our efforts to become an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats," e-mails new Unity08 recruit Kevin Corry, a retired teacher from Bartlett, who has been e-mailing me for years about the rising national debt. "It would be hard to do any worse than they have done over the last many years."
Granted, under the control of Republicans and Democrats for decades, we the people are stuck with an ill-conceived war that we can't seem to win or escape from, a $9 trillion national debt and the usual problems with poverty, education, infrastructure, health care and crime.
But can a third-party candidate win?
Nothing like sucking the life out of a column, but the answer is a simple "No."
Any third-party candidate who predicts victory is either playing along for the sake of the effort or delusional.
"I think that is an extreme case of positive thinking," says Valiant Vetter, state chair of the Illinois Libertarian Party. While his long-established party overcame the odds to get presidential candidate Richard Campagna on the Illinois ballot in 2004, the Libertarian hopeful garnered just 0.62 percent and finished more than 2.3 million Illinois votes behind runner-up George W. Bush.
The Green Party remains giddy with its "success" in the 2006 Illinois governor's race, when a candidate who was not named Judy Baar Topinka or Rod Blagojevich got 10.4 percent of the vote.
Perhaps because of the double-digit showing, the Green Party has chosen Chicago for its national convention July 10-13, 2008. The Libertarians will host their Illinois convention this Oct. 12-14 in Rockford.
About the best a third-party candidate can hope for is to control enough of the vote to be heard.
"If we think we can swing a vote, be a spoiler, at least we can get some attention," Vetter says.
Illinois' own John Anderson got 6.6 percent of the vote in 1980 as an alternative to Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Ross Perot's 18.9 percent of the vote in 1996 allowed Clinton to win even though 57 percent of voters voted against him. George Wallace captured 13.5 percent of the vote in 1968, allowing Richard Nixon to win with 43.4 percent of the vote. And we all know about Nader's showing in 2000.
It won't be in 2008, but one day a third-party candidate might win the White House -- and that could be a good thing. After all, the last third-party candidate to win the presidency turned out to be competent enough to get his picture on the $5 bill.