Americans Elect: Early Dirty Tricks

Another dirty trick tsunami may have been launched on Sunday by a group which calls itself "Americans Elect" (AE), a new political party that claims it's not a political party - just a movement. Put aside the hubris in their branding, the idea behind AE is to circumvent the party nomination process and put "non-partisan" candidates directly on ballots nation wide. Already promoted by Tom Friedman and Chris Mathews; David Gregory, on NBC's Meet the Press, gave the grifters a kick start with their first national Sunday network exposure -- and a soft ball set of questions. Gregory mentioned Ross Perot and the Libertarians, but not how a third party "movement" helped to elect Bill Clinton twice. Clinton never got more than 50% of the vote in either election, but the Republicans lost enough votes to lose. Like the Libertarian Party, AE is attempting to cash in on the "plague on both houses" sentiment; more pervasive today than it was during Perot's marginal campaigns. It's very unlikely...(Read Full Post)