[ A conservative populist would beat them both in a 3-way race. ]
We had one, or one that pretended to be in 1992, his name was H. Ross Perot. In the summer of 1992 he stood a great chance of winning, then he withdrew all of a sudden, for some reason, then when he got back in the damage had already been done and the democrat won..
Either he was paid off or his family was threatned...
I dare say ANYONE who runs as a 3rd party populist should commit themselves 10000% to winning and ignore ALL threats even if their threaten EVERYONE in their family, and record tyheir phone calls in case somethign happens to them and make sure they can Identify WHO made the threat should it be carried out.
The Perot Example brings two possibilites.
1. Either he was in on sbaotaging his campaign from the begining...
2. He scared the crap out of the establishment and the establishment felt they needed to make an example out of him by destroying his electoral responsibility.
Perot is a very encouraging example. An amateur (and more than a little strange) got 19 million votes.
To win a 3 way race, the conservative populist will have to be an experienced politician and candidate. Preferably a former governor.
I always thought that Ross Perot ran because he hated Bush and wanted to stop his election. He succeeded in that.