Usually, if a presidential election has a three-way race, it hurts the incumbent party. In 1968, when the president was a Democrat, George Wallace ran as an independent, helping Nixon win with about 45% of the vote. In 1992, when George H.W. Bush, a Republican, ran for reelection, Perot ran as an independent, helping Clinton win with 43%. In 2000, when the president was a Democrat, Nader ran for the Green Party, helping Bush win with about 48%.
The difference in 2012 is the revulsion TEA partiers/conservatives now harbor toward RINOs. McCain turned our stomachs to such a degree that we just won’t sit around and take it anymore. The Dems are counting on this, and will invade our open primaries to insure we get a RINO so liberal we rebel. The RNC open primary system is broken, but the Ruling Party RINOs that run it won’t fix it. Dems don’t let Republicans choose their candidate, but we have little choice under the current system.