Ralph Nader For President

3rd party challenge in 2012? Not likely, experts say

WASHINGTON — Tea party conservatives don't trust Mitt Romney, the leading Republican candidate for president. Progressives feel betrayed by President Barack Obama. And after a politically bruising debt compromise, many voters feel frustrated with both Democrats and Republicans as the 2012 election season draws near.

Third party, anyone? Could next year bring another Ross Perot?

While speculation has intensified that next year's presidential contest could see serious challenges from outside the two major national parties, political experts are doubtful.

"The cautionary tale for any third-party candidate," said Cary Covington, a political science professor at the University of Iowa, "is to remember that the last time a third-party candidate even finished second in a presidential race was 1912."

Since former President Theodore Roosevelt took second that year as a Progressive Party candidate, significant obstacles have largely shoved third-party candidates to the margins of elections. Simply put, Democrats and Republicans have an easier time raising money, getting listed on state ballots and winning enough states for shots at Electoral College majorities.

Political scientists they say those obstacles probably will prevent today's widespread voter disillusionment from translating into a credible electoral challenge.

"It's almost insurmountable," said Dr. Holly Brasher, a professor of government at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Until one of these left or right or center organizations has some continuity from year to year, I don't ever see it happening."

The obstacles, however, haven't stopped talk of a third-party challenge from the left, the right or even the center.

During and after this week's debt-ceiling compromise — which 95 Democrats voted against in the House of Representatives — many liberals blasted Democratic concessions to the Republican Party, particularly the abandonment of revenue increases in favor of spending cuts only.

One senator, independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont, announced during a radio appearance July 22 that he'd support a progressive challenger to the president in Democratic primaries. Consumer activist Ralph Nader agreed, saying in an interview July 27 with the congressional newspaper The Hill that he's working to recruit liberal Democratic challengers to Obama. (Nader and Sanders have said they don't plan to run.

The Dick -- Ralph Nader for President in 2008

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In the book, Nader exposed how cars were unsafe and how they could be made safer.

What was the auto industry’s response?

They hired spies to tail Ralph.

They hired beautiful women to seduce him.

Faced with this intimidation and seduction from a powerful industry, Ralph did not succumb.

He went on to sue General Motors for invasion of privacy.

And used the proceeds of the settlement to launch the modern consumer movement.

And you think Ralph will ever stop fighting the corporate state?

He never has.

And he never will.

The first person to report on General Motors spying on Ralph Nader was a young reporter named James Ridgeway. Ridgeway wrote an article titled "The Dick."

The article was published on March 12, 1966 in the New Republic (Excerpt: "Sunday evening, February 20, Nader left his room in northwest Washington and went up the street a couple of blocks to a drugstore. He was standing at the magazine rack when a young attractive brunette he had never seen before approached and said "Pardon me. I know this sounds a little forward. I hope you don’t mind, but can I talk to you?" She said a few of her friends often got together to discuss various problems of foreign affairs. They wanted to get all viewpoints. Would he join them? Nader was dumbfounded. Trying to get rid of her politely, he said he was from out of town. But the girl persisted. Oh, she said, that’s alright. There was a meeting that night. Nader said he wasn’t interested and turned his back. The girl left.")

"The Dick" is a classic in citizen journalism.