[Ichneumon]

It is truly bizarre to see one party try to destroy another party with which it AGREES 90% of the time--to replace it with a party with which it DISAGREES 90% of the time, thus undermining everything Libertarians claim to hold dear. Some might call this "insanity".

More like "crazy like a fox". I see no indication that the libertarian party is trying to "destroy" the Republicans, or "replace" them with the Democrats.

Nor do they have to actually tip the scales in an election in order to gain some clout. And they probably are well aware of the fact that it would take almost a miracle (and a *very* special set of "lucky" voting results) for them to actually tip the race this year, or any year.

Instead, they realize that all they have to do is get enough votes to be a *possible* spoiler in this or future elections in order to make the Republicans (*and* the Democrats) nervous enough about whether voters lost to the libertarians might cost them an election at some point. The hope is that this will make either or both major parties shift a bit in their platforms in order to "take back" the votes "lost" to libertarians. In this way the libertarians can influence national policy to lean more towards their desired goals in the long term, without ever having to actually win an election or even necessarily flip one.

By running ads in Republican districts in "undecided" states, for example, they're trying to get the Republicans to realize that drifting away from fiscal responsibility *will* lose them critical votes -- so that the Republicans have a real incentive to pull up the reins on spending.

This is pretty much the same "game" played by third parties of any stripe in this or any two-party nation. The Greens, the Socialist Party, the Libertarians, etc. are not crazy enough to think that they're going to have a chance to *win* this year or any time in the forseeable future, but just being in the race at all can be helpful to their goals, both in the way I describe above, and by giving their philosophies a podium.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

That's an interesting analysis, but my point is simply that this particular election, at this particular time in history, is nothing to be playing games with. It's too dangerous.

[Hank Rearden]

Very well put.

[montag813]

By running ads in Republican districts in "undecided" states, for example, they're trying to get the Republicans to realize that drifting away from fiscal responsibility *will* lose them critical votes

By running ads in swing states against the Republicans, they are trying to defeat Republicans and elect Democrats. To pretend that GOPers are going to suddenly switch to the Libertarian positions before election day is just silly. John Thune lost the Senate seat in 2002 because of the Lbertarian party...period. I hope you guys are thrilled with Democrat Tim Johnson as a result, who endorses a complete repeal of the Bush tax cuts.