There is strong evidence that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election.
Every new “conservative” candidate poses a serious threat to GOP Presidential hopes. That is mainly because conservatives are looking for someplace, anyplace, to go. If Romney is the GOP candidate, the GOP will lose. It astonishes me that the GOP establishment elite doesn’t get that. ...Or do they?
I was in a hurry to reply ‘till I tripped over an Etch-A-Scetch.
I agree with you, about Nader and the 2000 race. In Florida, he got about 98,000 votes, and Bush beat Gore by about 500 votes. In New Hampshire, Nader got about 22,000 votes, and Bush beat Gore by about 7,000 votes.
Usually, the strongest third-party presidential candidate takes votes from the incumbent party. In 1992, when a republican president ran for re-election, Perot got 19%, helping Clinton win. In 1968, when the president was a Democrat, Wallace got about 11% of the vote, helping Nixon win.