Will 2012 be a year where third-party candidates play a large role in the election?

Three parties may be fielding strong candidates this year. The Libertarian Party will likely be represented by a former Governor for the first time – New Mexico’s Gary Johnson. The Greens may be fielding a celebrity, Rosanne Barr, and the new Americans Elect Party is determined to put their as-yet-unnamed ticket on the ballot in most states.

Let us look at the candidates one-by-one and assess what sort of impact that they may have this year.

Gary Johnson (pictured) joined the Libertarian Party after leaving the Republicans. Public Policy Polling currently has him polling at 6%, with Romney and Obama coming in at 42 and 47% respectively. Johnson’s low name recognition could either be a boost or boon to him here. If he can get his name known to most people, he could become a serious player. But that takes a lot of cash, which Johnson currently lacks. What is especially interesting about the PPP poll is that Johnson does well among the “very liberal.” This may ruin the “spoiler effect” which dogs most third-party candidates for office.

Rosanne seemed to be running a joke campaign (announcing on Leno that she was running for president as well as Prime Minster of Israel). It now appears that she is now more serious. If the Green Party nominates the 59-year-old actress, she will get significant media coverage. With a net worth estimated at $80 million dollars, she could make an impact if she is willing to spend a significant amount of her own money on her campaign. But she may have to be careful to temper her views and speech if she wants to be taken seriously as a candidate.

Americans Elect, a new player on the presidential election scene has yet to name their candidate, which will be selected by a vote of online delegates. They have both declared and “draft” candidates. Buddy Roemer is leading in the number of of his supporters among declared candidates, and Ron Paul leads among draft candidates. Roemer would tend to face many of the same problems as Johnson – little name recognition and a lack of funds, and Paul may not accept a third-party nomination for whatever reason.

So, as we look at what may be the most exciting presidential election of our lifetimes, Johnson appears to have experience and appeal but lacks funds, Rosanne has funds, but lacks experience and may lack appeal to the political masses, and what happens with Americans Elect is going to depend entirely who they pick as their nominee.

Anyway you write it, this is going to be an interesting election.

(Photo: garyjohnson2012.com)

From salon.com:

“The most recent decline in teen births can be linked almost exclusively to improvements in teens’ contraceptive use”

You don’t say? Kids use a condom, or the pill, or both, and they don’t get knocked up? Brilliant! Seriously, call Guinness! Wait, what? There’s another possibility?

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America:

“They don’t even mention the fact there’s been a tremendous increase in effectiveness and pervasiveness of abstinence education.”

Oh! I get it! By telling kids to not have sex because it’s bad, they’re not going to do it! This works wonders when you tell kids not to eat junk food, let me tell ya. Why, my experience has been that 76% of children that I lecture on the dangers of candy eat nothing but fruits and vegetables as snacks.

“As Think Progress noted this week, teen birth rates are actually highest in states with abstinence-only policies. Not only has it been widely documented that such programs are largely ineffective, it’s also been shown that such programs may prevent contraception use.”

Lucy, you got some splainin’ to do!

As a wise man once said, you can be entitled to your own opinions, but you can’t be entitled to your own facts. The fact of the matter is abstinence-only education does not work. If you need proof from the right for this, just look to Sarah Palin’s daughter. Kids will have sex – it’s been happening since the dawn of man and will continue to happen so long as it continues to feel good and relieve all that angst these teens have built up in them from the pressures of modern society. Instead of turning away from the reality of the situation because we can’t handle a little discussion about genitalia, we should be responsible about this and have a friggin’ five minute chat with our kids about the dangers and risks of sex, and how to prevent them.

Why this is even an issue in this country is beyond me. Are we really this screwed up that it’s okay to show gratuitous violence on television, but we can’t talk about how people have sex? This is the point where I’d usually say something crass and get a ton of flack for it, but I’m going to leave it alone this time.

Look, our children are our responsibility. There’s a reason why the current generation of young adults resent the generation that raised us – you did a lousy job of it and a lot of us turned out to be idiots. Those idiots are now having little idiots of their own and are teaching them absolutely nothing about growing up. There are only so many jobs available at McDonald’s, although with the number of teens that need to drop out of school in order to support an unplanned pregnancy that their parents said would be a sin to abort, I imagine there will be high demand for dirt-cheap food that provides no nutritional value, while at the same time providing plenty of minimum-wage jobs, perpetuating the cycle.

Eat. Sleep. Breed. Pop ‘em out. But don’t educate them. That’s just crazy talk.

Andrew Breitbart

In the silver lining department, Breitbart‘s death has generated the latest, greatest round of conspiracy theories, which I do so enjoy. So let’s follow this one through. Bear with me as we walk through this theory from the beginning.

The theory goes: President Obama was born in Kenya. The short-form birth certificate was a fake. The long-form certificate, which was eventually produced, was also a fake. Given the nearly unlimited resources available to the President of the United States of America backed by billionaire George Soros, it’s hard to argue that it would be beyond his capability to create a falsified birth certificate.

Then Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in the course of his obvious duties as a sheriff in Arizona, uncovered the smoking gun evidence that proves that Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate is a computer-generated forgery. In his own words, Arpaio defends his decision to investigate the potential forgery — and I am not making this up — saying “I’m just doing my job.” Really, what else is the sheriff of Maricopa County supposed to do if not investigate the POTUS’s bona fides?

So, Arpaio leaks the information to Breitbart, who plans to release it to the world, crippling the Obama presidency, on March 1st. He brags about it enough that word gets back to some very powerful, very evil members of the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. These VLWC members fear his evidence so much that they murder Breitbart on the eve of his big reveal, trusting that his death will scare Arpaio into keeping his silence.

Of course, Ron Paul is aware of these Machiavellian plans and threatens to expose the evildoers. Only a last-minute agreement between Obama and Paul to drop Joe Biden from the re-election ticket and replace him with Rand Paul keeps Paul, Sr.,  from spilling his information to the press.

OK, I made that last part up. But the rest has been circulating since about five minutes after Breitbart’s death.  On the credibility side, I will agree that it wouldn’t be beyond Obama’s means to craft a realistic forgery. On the incredible side, there’s everything else about the story, particularly the notion that Obama cares one whit about any new evidence disputing his citizenship status.

Anyway, on to a special Winners and Losers this week, with multiple Winners and just one Loser:

WINNERS:
Mitt Romney
It wasn’t the Washington he’s really interested in, but Mitt Romney scored yet another win in the Washington State caucus this week. Will Super Tuesday put an end to the extra-long Republican primary season? Dare we dream that this could finally be the end? Or at least the beginning of the end?

Sandra Fluke
The Georgetown University student who testified that she needs big brother government to force somebody, anybody other than her, to pay for her birth control is getting her fifteen minutes of fame and plenty of sympathy thanks to Rush Limbaugh (see the Loser column below). That is one lucky trampy prostitute. I’m kidding! I know she’s not a prostitute.

Vladimir Putin
It was a foregone conclusion, but now Putin’s return to the Presidency of Russia is official.

Detained Terrorists
Tony West, the same attorney who defended infamous terrorist John Walker Lindh, is now in charge of drawing up U.S. policy for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Get out your clean jump suit and polish those ankle-shackles. There’s gonna be a party on C-wing tonight.

LOSER:
Rush Limbaugh
Half of America is going to hate him no matter what he says at this point. His comments about Sandra Fluke were crude, but nothing unheard of for talk radio. Certainly nothing worse than Al Franken said about President Bush on his short-lived Air America program. The best choice would have been to not call Fluke a “slut” or a “prostitute”. The next best thing would have been to apologize immediately. Third on the list would have been to stand by his guns, regardless of the backlash. (The placement of second and third is subject to debate.) The worst choice, the one chosen by Limbaugh, was to make the comments, refuse the opportunity to apologize, say he would stand by the comments, then ultimately backpedal under pressure from his sponsors.

WINNERS:
Ron Paul –
As the various Republican contenders fall by the wayside for sundry reasons, Ron Paul looks less like a fringe kook and more like a legitimate option. He placed third in the latest Iowa poll, just one point behind Mitt Romney. When Newt Gingrich’s past inevitably catches up to him, we may well be down to a two-man race between Paul and Romney.

Newt Gingrich –
For the time being, Newt Gingrich is riding high. He’s way out in front of the field in the latest Iowa poll. A rough interview with Glenn Beck and a bizarre off-handed threat from Nancy Pelosi weren’t enough to slow him down this week. I think even Gingrich is surprised that he’s considered a viable option – the front runner, even – for the Republican nomination at this point in the process. His campaign team is struggling to meet the filing deadlines to get his name on the ballots of various states – a sign of both his shocking success in the polls and unsettling shortcomings in his campaign organization. Still, this was another good week for the Newt.

Donald Trump –
Somehow Donald Trump has become a coveted backer among Republicans. Trump is emerging as a sort of elder statesman within the party, despite having zero political experience aside from a brief flirtation with a campaign earlier this year. I guess having a gagillion dollars will buy a guy some degree of legitimacy. Trump is now clearly established as a king-maker among the dwindling field of hopefuls vying for the Republican nomination. Maybe the remaining contenders will agree to forego the primary process and appear on a reality TV show hosted by Trump to determine the next nominee?

LOSERS:
Alec Baldwin –
Alec Baldwin isn’t an actual political figure, but he wants to be. His delusions of a future in politics took a hit this week when Baldwin became belligerent and was kicked off an American Airlines flight because he was playing a game on his cell phone. Baldwin thought that his celebrity put him above FAA regulations, but he was mistaken. To follow up his boorish behavior, Baldwin Tweeted his umpteen followers to complain about American Airlines, mock their flight attendants, and act as if it were totally normal behavior to disregard safety regulations in order to play an online spelling game with friends. Every time Baldwin does something to build upon his already well-established image as a self-absorbed jerk, his dreams of being taken seriously drift that much farther away.

Vladimir Putin –
I guess we overstated Vladimir Putin’s popularity among the Russian people in last week’s column. This week protesters took to the streets in defiance of the mere possibility of Putin maybe retaking the reigns of the country. His United Russia Party – and by extension, Putin himself – was accused of voter fraud in a parliamentary election that no one seemed to care much about until it was all over. Even Mikhail Gorbachev, who may or may not have died several years ago, got into the act and public called for an electoral do-over. That was one short honeymoon.

Herman Cain –
It’s all over for Cain. I think we’ve spent enough time on his fall from grace in this column. We won’t rehash his plight any further. Suffice it to say (there’s an expression that I don’t get to use nearly often enough) that Herman Cain is in the Loser column again this week – probably for the last time in the foreseeable future as he fades into obscurity. For those who can’t get enough of this Cain Wreck, you can read still more on the subject in Eric Blake’s article or Jason Lightner’s article this week.

Rod Blagojevich –
Very few rational observers doubted Rod Blagojevich’s guilt. But 18 convictions? In Chicago? His 14-year sentence is more than double that of his immediate predecessor, George Ryan, also convicted and sentenced for corruption. Anybody else seeing a pattern here?

THE PEOPLE’S LOSER: LANNY BREUER - 

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer is Eric Holder‘s right hand man.  It looks like he’s also the Oliver North of the Justice Department. Operation Fast & Furious retroactively has a new mastermind and the Justice Department has its scapegoat.

“You’re blow­ing it with Fox News. The axis today is not lib­eral and con­ser­v­a­tive, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you’ve cast your lot with the destruc­tive peo­ple. Fox has become an incred­i­bly destruc­tive force in our soci­ety. You can be bet­ter, and this is going to be your legacy if you’re not care­ful.”

This struck a chord with me as a person who watched Fox News when I was younger, from about 1998 on up to 2004 when I finally figured out what was going on. I’d been suckered in at the time by the pretty graphics and effects. I figured that since all news outlets reported on the same news in the same way, I may as well be watching news that was pleasing to the eye. The alternatives at the time had graphics which rivaled what C-SPAN currently uses. My favorite shows back then were On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren, Hannity and Colmes, and The O’Reilly Report. I would put on “the news” while I did my schoolwork, while I pottered around on the computer and, in the later years, I would actually sit down on the couch to watch a show or two.

It takes a lot to fix eight years of destructive thought, let me tell you.

You see, I’ve had this beef with Fox News since the veil was lifted, and any time I try to convince a friend or family member who watches Fox of what is happening, they always tell me that I’m a liberal who doesn’t know the truth and that Fox is right because the Republicans are right. I didn’t understand it at the time, but what Steve had to say is absolutely correct and is really the only way of putting it. Fox News is simply a destructive force in the country world and it needs to be stopped.

To say that Fox is conservative is an affront to real conservatives everywhere. You see, there is a clear difference between having political views with healthy debate, and eschewing all manner of intelligent debate by turning politics into sports. What Fox (and for comparison, MSNBC) is doing is both irresponsible and counterproductive to the interests of our country. They are purposefully misinforming the American people in order to further the agenda of the destructive members of our Government.

There exist folks who want to see the poor poorer, and the rich richer. There are folks like Newt Gingrich, who used to be a consultant to the giant investing firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – who caused the sorry state of affairs we’re currently in – that actually want our vote to run this country. There’s a related comment in this post on reddit (Warning: naughty words) about the Gingrich-Mae/Mac relationship. Interestingly enough, the comment that replies to the one I referenced immediately takes aim at Democrats for defending Fannie and Freddy when the Bush administration wanted to regulate them. This is the problem.

Forget the Democrat and Republican crap. It’s lies. All of it. These are two groups of people with slightly differing opinions on how the world should be, but there are large numbers of people in each group that are hungry for power and will lie to your face in order to get it. These are the most unscrupulous, plotting, destructive people you could ever hope to meet and they will smile at you and ask for your vote. Do not give it to them. Do not feed into the destructive people and the destructive media that blasts us with misinformation.

MSNBC shoved Obama down our throats until we were so full of change, it was coming out our nostrils. Now we have the President ordering the assassination of American citizens. It is coming from everywhere and we need to recognize it.

This is how misinformed we are becoming. A study was done recently that discovered that Fox News viewers actually knew less about current events than people who did not watch the news at all. The same was said about MSNBC, but not to the same extent.

Turn the TV off. Read. Ask questions. Get involved.

Or don’t vote. Doing so without being informed is what allows the destruction to continue.

The Doctor

This past Sunday, everyone’s favorite Libertarian in Republican’s clothing, Ron Paul, was on Face the Nation in an interview with Bob Schieffer. Ron talked about foreign policy, the economy, and bringing our troops home. It was good to see him finally getting some airtime after polling at a grand rate for months now.

So CBS gives Uncle Ron some airtime, and it’s with a man who either doesn’t know how to do a proper interview, or has a personal vendetta against Dr. Paul which causes him to twist Paul’s words at every opportunity. This is the kind of disgusting stuff that we as Americans and people who value proper news are simply fed up with. The media continues to push their agenda of getting someone into office who will play ball with the puppet masters behind the scenes – someone who will maintain the status quo. They’re finding out, however, that the people are waking up to this garbage, and they’re running scared.

The Protests

Speaking of running scared, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example of the powers-that-be getting spooked than law enforcement’s reaction to the Occupy protests. It’s becoming alarmingly clear that law enforcement simply doesn’t care about upholding the law in any proper manner. Instead, they wish to instill fear and submission in citizen’s minds. A look at the actions of police across the country – most recently at the UC Davis protests – points to an underlying issue in this whole thing. If you are a peaceful protester, the police will do everything in their power to attempt to change that in order to invalidate your cause. This is their mission and it has been since the start of the protests.

What’s beautiful about all of this, however, is that unlike the police, the protesters have discipline. Shortly after the attack on students was ordered by the school’s Chancellor, the students organized another protest where they sat in silence as the Chancellor walked to her car. This is one of the most epic displays of peaceful protest I have ever seen. It is both calm and unnerving at the same time.

The Tragedy

Amidst all the protest going on the United States, you may find it difficult not to get lost in the noise, with many other countries still experiencing protests and unrest of their own. Egypt has been a particularly troubling note as this picture via Twitter clearly shows (WARNING: Graphic). What this image shows is a large pile of motionless bodies laying on the sidewalk, surrounded by police. The caption of the image, taken by Democracy Now correspondent, Anjali Kamat, is as follows:

“8 unmoving bodies in tahrir, pic i took 3 hours ago, just got to computer 2 upload. not sure how many dead vs. unconscious. corner of #tahrir sq & tahrir st.”

Heartbreaking.