Political Parties

Effective third party candidacies for president. According to Wikipedia there have been only 2 significant ones in the past 100 years. Sadly I have to disagree as we will see.

Bull Moose Party



Actually the Progressive Party was the real moniker of this 1912 attempt at the presidency. But since America love's nicknames, the Bull Moose Party became the popular name.

Essentially, Teddy Roosevelt was ticked at William Howard Taft. That's really about it.

"Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States until 1909. When he left office, William Howard Taft was chosen to run and won the presidency for the Republican Party. In 1912, Roosevelt was unhappy with Taft's time in office and put his name forward to become the Republican Party's nominee again. The Party chose to stick with Taft. This angered Roosevelt who walked out of the convention and then formed his own party." (americanhistory.about.com)

See, I'm not lying.

Then again this is a guy who just 3 years prior to becoming the president of our nation literally charged a MACHINE GUN NEST in the Spanish American War. Walking out of a convention was not a tough decision.

A hilarious anecdote:
"Roosevelt personally led the attack but paused after charging a few feet with only a handful of men following. He turned around and inquired why no one had followed."

Platforms Included:

"women's suffrage, social welfare assistance for women and children, farm relief, revisions in banking, health insurance in industries, and worker's compensation. The party also wanted an easier method to amend the constitution."(americanhistory.about.com)

This guys resume reads like a Progressive and a Maverick at the same time. Somewhere Glenn Beck is very confused.

Reform Party
The reform party was the result of the 1992 Independent Candidacy of Billionaire Ross Perot.

18.9% of the vote in 1992. 9% in 1996. In the three elections since no 3rd party candidate has broken 5%.

His candidacy was described by the New York Times as "starkly pro-business like a republican", yet "arguing for a level of regulation normally identified with liberal democrats."

But I don't think most people got past these soundholes growing off the side of his noggin.




And finally the dark side of recent American electoral history.




Personally I find the white shading of these states ironically appropriate.

Those four states voted for a man who only 5 years previous had said:
"segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever" - George Wallace



And apparently less than 20 years before I was born a significant amount of the U.S. population still agreed with him.