Exactly. The odds of Deval Patrick getting a second term were slim to none, given the basket case economy of MA and his abysmally low poll numbers going into the election. But this Axelrod prodigy pulled it off because the anti-Patrick vote split between the Republican and the Independent. That is guaranteed the strategy they’ll try to pull on us in 2012. Maybe the current RNC head will do better than Steele at averting crisis. We shall see.
I see two ways a 3rd party candidate goes forward:
If the Republican nominee is Romney, or similar, it’s guaranteed there will be a Tea Party challenger. I expect Dems in open primary states to go hard for Romney as a 2012 version of Operation Chaos.
If the Republican nominee is a legitimate conservative, a Soros funded MSM backed “independent” will surface.