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Americans Elect Struggles to Find Suitable Third-Party Candidate

May 16, 2012 RSS Feed Print
Buddy Roemer speaks in Waukee, Iowa.

Buddy Roemer speaks in Waukee, Iowa.

Americans Elect is going through some tough times. The advocacy group was created by several wealthy activists to place an independent presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states this fall. The trouble, it turns out, is that no one has met the group's standards to qualify for its presidential nomination, and Americans Elect has announced that it is suspending the process, at least for now.

[See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates]

It had sounded so impressive: Americans Elect would go through the trouble, state by state, of placing an independent "ticket" on the ballot, and then it would use new online technology to allow people to choose nominees for president and vice president. What was missing were credible candidates, and that's still the case.

The ballot access program has been going well, with Americans Elect on the ballot in more than half the states. But the closest that the group could come to a candidate is Buddy Roemer, the former governor and congressman from Louisiana. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination this year, was excluded from the debates, and went nowhere during the primaries. Roemer now concedes that he has failed to get enough online support to qualify for the group's ballot. He got about 6,000 "clicks" for his candidacy in an online system that required at least 10,000—1,000 in each of 10 states.

Roemer said he still wants the nomination and will work harder to get it.

"What Americans Elect has done for our country is revolutionary," he told reporters. "It is my sincere hope that they continue on their mission of putting forth a credible candidate to face the bought candidates—Barack Obama and Mitt Romney."

"The American people are hungry for reform and both parties are not providing it because they are too busy fighting like schoolchildren," he added.

[See a slide show of 10 issues driving Obama's re-election campaign]

Americans Elect leaders are now trying to figure out their next step. The group's leaders say the stumbling block was the concern of potential candidates that running for president would subject them and their families to intolerable levels of attack and unwelcome levels of scrutiny. And with the major party candidates already lobbing negative bombs at each other nearly every day, and the media on the hunt for embarrassing stories, those concerns are understandable.

 

 

Tags:
2012 presidential election,
politics

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Dear Sir,

As an independent third party candidate of Federalist Party, I would run the presidency from a engineering perspective. I do not depend on lobbyists to come up with solutions, my package includes to name a few:

1) A different voluntary health care system.

2) A water crisis solution.

3) As an engineer, I redesigned the hydrogen automobile and redesigned the steam engine cars, using newly discovered technologies. I would donate the designs to reduce gasoline consumption.

4) The capitalist system is no longer tenable in its current form, I redesigned it to fit the current and future generations.

5) My stand on politics can be viewed on Vote Smart.com.

6) Restore Posse Comitatus.

7) I have designed an indoor/outdoor job creation projects. Made in America,by Americans with American resources.

8) If we fail to study history today, we are condemned to repeat it.

9) Replace dangerous Uranium with the less powerful and safer Thorium. Which by the way would defuse an Iranian war.

10) I will show you why Russian President Putin teams up with Communist China.

11) Communist China is gobbling up all the gold in the world and explain why.

12) Judge Andrew Napalitano would be my Vice Presidential running mate. Mr. Glen Greenwald is included on the team and a future Supreme court judge.

13) A quick response preparedness system to handle any and all emergencies.

14) Permanently returning U.S. soldiers from bases around the world that no longer need or want us.

15) I redesigned how cargo containers can be 100% inspected using new technologies and physically redesigning the port layout.

16) The United States is a republic and not an empire. We can no longer be the worlds policeman, that is the responsibility of the U.N.

17) Getting all 50 states with Governors and their complete legislators under one roof using a convention center with new voting technology to setup a Second Constitutional Convention. Remember: Article V of the constitution states two thirds (33) to call and ratified by three fourths (38) states.

18) Setting up a poverty program, not a Socialist one.

These are just a few examples of viable alternative recommendations the 99% can evaluate and study. This will not be rammed down their throat.

In conclusion:

A) Your first 2 Presidents (George Washington and John Adams) were Federalists. Opposing them were at first anti-federalists, which later became the Democratic/Republican Party. My,my how history repeats itself.

B) I do not accept any donations, there are too many poor people, myself included that struggle to survive daily. However, they can donate money to homeless shelters, food pantries. tent cities,etc or their helping to serve them in lieu of money. Also, as my own Treasurer, I want to turn in all zeors to the Federal Election Commission. Oh! By the way they do not check birth certificates. It was never requested of me when I ran in 2008 under the American New Genesis Party or today's Federalist Party. I will present.

joseph felix leonaitis of MS 6:34AM May 20, 2012

A Third Part Candidate ?

I am still waiting for the Democrats to put forth a Honest American Loving Candidate.

Vincent Lawrence of MN 3:23PM May 18, 2012

I always figured no candidate from one of the major parties would have the guts to run--and that's because I (unlike the media) always BELIEVED Ross Perot when he said he'd received threats regarding his daughter's wedding.

The two parties are quite as capable of instilling cold fear as any communist or fascist state. when Perot ran, in NH (where I lived) he was UNABLE TO BUY a half-hour slot for a paid commercial. I imagine the station is threated by the two party cabal that they will withdraw all their advertsing if a 3d party is able to buy on that station.

What a sad end for a country that began with a handful of "quixotic" people (the kind Mayor Bloomberg has such contempt for) willing to give up everythin in declaring independence.

With Citizens United cash in full sway this time around we're headed, inexorably toward corporate fascism.

If I sound gloomy, I am.

The two-party monopoly is what is at the heart of everything wrong with America. I pray Americans Elect will decide to LET A CANDIDATE RUN in 2012 even if goals not set this time around. It is a flicker of hope for the fututre. Give it time, please. Mr. Roemer is an absolutely qualified candidate--far better qualified in terms of government experience and business experience than either Obama in 2008 and Romney in2012.

He did actually BUILD a business--not merely invest to make money as has been Romney's only business experience.

aurora1920 of FL 12:57AM May 17, 2012

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A longtime chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, Kenneth T. Walsh has covered five presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan. Along with other U.S. News writers, he continues to provide insight into the White House of Barack Obama and the world of presidential campaigns.

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