Third Party Is Better Than RINO Jeb Bush

From the very beginning of the first GOP presidential debate, Donald Trump was in the spotlight and under fire from Fox News commentators. The first question asked for a show of hands of all candidates who would not pledge to support the Republican presidential nominee. Only Donald Trump raised his hand, which led to the first of many confrontations during the debate. He was challenged by moderator Brett Baier and lambasted by Senator Rand Paul for “buying and selling politicians.” While Trump declared that he wants to “run as the Republican nominee,” he is wise to keep his options open.

The Republican establishment is terrified of Trump, who can finance a third party campaign and is independent of special interests. They will continue to mercilessly attack him, hence Trump is smart to maintain “leverage” and keep open the third party alternative.

It may also provide a needed choice for the American people. If the presidential nominees are Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Jeb Bush, or another RINO, Trump should enter the race to give voters a real alternative. The last thing the country needs is another Bush or Clinton in the White House.

In fact, in a three-way race between Clinton, Bush and Trump, there is a possibility that Trump may win. There is great dissatisfaction with political dynasties and millions of Americans would refuse to vote for either Clinton or Bush, giving a well-funded third party candidate like Trump a chance.

There is certainly precedent for a strong third party candidacy. In 1992, Texas businessman Ross Perot was leading the presidential race before he exited amid claims that he did not want to throw the election into the House of Representatives. He later said he left the race because he was concerned that Republicans were planning to disrupt his daughter’s wedding. When he returned to the campaign months later, his prospects were severely diminished. Nevertheless, he finished with almost 19% of the vote, the highest third party total since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

Unlike Perot, who destroyed his chances when he abandoned the race, Trump would be a more formidable third party contender. He has universal name recognition, billions of dollars to spend, and no need to placate special interests or big donors. Clearly, the GOP establishment, and their media lapdogs, will try to destroy his chances. This is exactly what happened during the Fox News debate. After being immediately confronted on the third party question, Trump spent the rest of the debate fending off queries about his bankruptcies, his stand on abortion and Obamacare, his treatment of women, and his previous support of Democrat candidates. Throughout it all, Trump stayed on the offensive and refused to apologize.

This stance was extremely popular with the vast conservative audience of the Drudge Report website. After 531,000 votes were tabulated, Trump was declared the winner by over 45% of the voters, far outpacing second place finisher Senator Ted Cruz who received just 14% of the vote. While the public loved Trump's performance, so-called experts such as analyst Charles Krauthammer and pollster Frank Luntz panned The Donald's showing. In true Trump fashion, he blasted Luntz as a “low class slob.”

Clearly, Trump's best chance for victory would be as the GOP nominee. Obviously, he would prefer to win the Republican nomination; however, he may be subjected to impossible hurdles as the race progresses.

While a third party candidacy is not the ideal scenario for Trump, he definitely needs to keep it as an option as the race progresses. It is too early to determine what will happen, but we do know that since Donald Trump is involved, practically everyone will be watching.

• KELLY: Governor Walker, in February you said that we needed to gain partners in the Arab world. Which Arab country not already in the U.S. led coalition has potential to be our greatest partner?

WALKER: What about then, we need to focus on the ones we have. You look at Egypt, probably the best relationship we’ve had in Israel, at least in my lifetime, incredibly important.

You look at the Saudis — in fact, earlier this year, I met with Saudi leaders, and leaders from the United Arab Emirates, and I asked them what’s the greatest challenge in the world today? Set aside the Iran deal. They said it’s the disengagement of America. We are leading from behind under the Obama-Clinton doctrine — America’s a great country. We need to stand up and start leading again, and we need to have allies, not just in Israel, but throughout the Persian Gulf.”

Then Scott Walker was asked about Iran: “To me, you terminate the deal on day one, you reinstate the sanctions authorized by Congress, you go to Congress and put in place even more crippling sanctions in place, and then you convince our allies to do the same. This is not just bad with Iran, this is bad with ISIS. It is tied together, and, once and for all, we need a leader who’s gonna stand up and do something about it.”

What does it mean, “This is not just bad with Iran, this is bad with ISIS. It is tied together . . .”

Egypt is in Israel? Who knew?

You are correct, there is some good thinking on this thread.
You said, referring to Trump:
...I look for the establishment to yank it out from under him no matter what.
That is clearly the writing on the wall, and I would add, if Trump even gets to the GOP primary (he is a major threat).

So your best thinking points to a third party, and I agree.
You then suggest Trump should start naming folks. That seems a prudent move and I would urge him to start as soon as his instincts fired. If he were to reach in and obtain the commitment of well regarded major players he would in essence be dealing himself some of the best cards in the deck. Of course, he should leave the VP slot unnamed until such time as Cruz agrees.

What about the risk of a third party splitting the vote to Hillary's advantage?
That is a genuine concern but Conservativejoy argues:
Let the RINO’s have the GOPe and the Conservatives should leave enmasse and form their own party.

What an opportune time to grow the conservative brand! Voters across the nation are disgusted with the duplicity and failures of both major parties and particularly as they are aided and abetted by the MSM.

In the interim, IMO, Trump voters + Cruz voters > Hillary voters.

Headed for the water.

If Danny they force Trump to go 3rd party he should pick Cruz as the VP. He would siphon off even more GOP votes but let’s hope it doesn’t come down to a 3rd party option.

That would be like a nuclear bomb detonating on top of the elephant's head. It would be difficult to find any trace of Republican DNA after something like that. Yes, let's hope something like that can be avoided.

I think it's far better to take the GOP away from the corrupt. Make the GOPE leave. Do not let them force us into disarray.

As somebody up-thread mentioned, it doesn't matter if the GOPE runs JEB, or if they force Trump to go third party. Either way, Hillery benefits. So, why would we allow the GOPE to destroy our own party?

It's time to fight!

A third party wins the White House for Clinton ..?????

What’s the difference between Clinton and Bushie?

The similarities are too great to list and besides, you won’t have the choice as to who will run for the Republican party since “the fix is in” and the one who will run has already been chosen by the RINO Elite and their fat cat contributors, Chamber of Commerce and all who have made billions off of the Republican party.

You have only one vote due you to save our country and be sure to waste it on an individual who is a “polished” politician (definition: One who will lie, cheat, and steal from you simply to enrich himself) and I hope you, your family, children and grandchildren curse the day you voted that way...for they live tomorrow in the political slavery you allowed to happen in 2016.

You make some good points. I’ve thought for a good while the Tea Party folks should branch out into their own separate party to begin with and have said so, but not here on FR as far as I can remember. American party maybe? I’d like that...

I’m not sure if it’s time to start naming potential cabinet members, but the two I named just seem to fit, Cruz for VP and Gowdy would be a good AG. Not sure about other posts, but I’m sure there are some good people here and there for other positions. and of course not drop Cruz’ name till he accepts, that would be really bad manners.

But looking at what’s been happening so far, I’m willing to bet the establishment finds a way to make sure Trump is not their nominee one way or another. Even if they have to cheat to do it.

Iscool makes a good point too, a lot of people are going to fall in line with the clear leader in the last few days of the race. Loads of low info voters will just go with whoever they think is going to win. I’m pretty sure that helped Obama a lot. Both times.

I have a different outlook too because I never followed politics until fairly recently when I saw this country going to hell in a handbasket, I knew it had gotten lots worse after Obama took office and said something to my sister. She acted like I was crazy and he was not a liar, his economic policy was not as horrible as it actually is, his foreign policy was not the reason our friends no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us, Obamacare was not the worst piece of crap ever thought up...yeah right...

So I did some poking around. She claimed Obamacare was not killing businesses and would not destroy the economy...so why have hundreds of small businesses closed since it went into effect? Why are premiums sky high and deductibles through the roof? Many people have started using emergency rooms because they can’t afford the deductible. The idea is since they would have to have a major emergency to meet the deductible, why bother to use it at all, just go to the emergency room.

I started looking all this up and finding out it was even worse than I thought. I knew long ago neither party was helping the average person, we’ve had both Democrats and Republicans in the White House and in control of Congress, prices have still gone up, government has still gotten bigger, inflation has never slowed down, jobs started going away while Clinton was still in office, Bush didn’t make it any better...so with both parties in control at various times, things have gone steadily downhill. That tells me neither one is doing what they are supposed to do, work FOR the American people. You don’t have to know diddly about politics to see that.

So I see things a little differently than many people, I don’t have a lot of ingrained preconceptions. I don’t look at it according to what happened 30 years ago and think it has to happen the same way now. And yeah, I’m a quick study...I haven’t spent the past 55 years learning as many different topics as I can for nothing...

That’s why I don’t think a 3rd party run should be ruled out or that it would automatically hand the keys to the Oval Office to Hillary. Actually I don’t think she will make it that far, I think the Democrats are looking for a reason to dump her as soon as possible, she’s gathering too much dirty laundry. Hillary won’t be the opponent Trump (or Cruz) has to worry about. Bernie Sanders maybe, Omalley maybe, even Biden. Biden would be a gift from heaven...Any one of the GOP hopefuls could beat Biden with one hand tied behind their back. But I get the feeling Hillary will not be there much longer, too much baggage. Soon as the Democrats can come up with a viable reason, she’ll be dropped like the hot potato she is.

Then a 3rd party run is an even better possibility when Trump is forced to do it. But it will still take a lot of support, and I still think people need to stop taking a pessimistic view of it.

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