Posted on 07/24/2015 11:46:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Donald Trump is making noise about an independent bid for president. If the Republican National Committee doesnt treat him fairly, Trump says, hell be more likely to launch a third-party run. I dont know if he is at all serious, but I do know two things: History suggests that an independent Trump campaign would crash and fail; polling suggests that even if that happened, Trump could take the Republican candidate down with him.
Trump received 20 percent of the vote in a hypothetical matchup against Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Jeb Bush in a newly released ABC News/Washington Post poll. But, if Trump were to run as an independent, his support would likely fade. Since the first Gallup poll in 1936, there have been five independent or third-party campaigns in which a candidate received at least 5 percent of the vote in early polls. All but George Wallace in 1968 ended up with a lower percentage of the vote than they initially garnered, according to Gallup surveys.
In fact, both Ross Perot in 1992 and George Wallace in 1968 faded more down the stretch than these numbers suggest. Perot polled at an amazingly high 39 percent in summer 1992 (that was before he dropped out and then re-entered the race). Wallace reached the low 20s in late September 1968 and then dropped steadily as Election Day approached.
(Excerpt) Read more at fivethirtyeight.com ...
When the GOP doesn’t show any difference in actually accomplishing anything different than the DNC, the GOP doesn’t matter to me anymore, since my concerns don’t matter to them.
Or, as some say, Uniparty. Because that’s what they are.
He's a stalking horse, meant to take the air away from Conservative candidates... He will fold after the Conservatives are no more. Think Fred Thompson.
The republican elites have not learned much from history.
In 1992 they turned their back on Ross Perot and the anti-establishment positions he advocated and they got Bill Clinton elected.
If that had not happened no one today would even know who Hillary Clinton was.
And by the way - everything Perot warned us about came to be true.
If the establishment republicans keep attacking Trump they will repeat history and guarantee another Clinton victory.
Actually I think many of the establishment republicans would rather see Hillary win than lose their power within the party to a populist or an outsider.
Did he threaten or did he answer a question?
He already said recently he didn’t want to split the votes.
But after the reports of the GOPe plotting to exclude Trump from the debates, Trump left the door open saying “if the RNC isn’t fair to me”.
I don’t blame him. He’s winning the GOP nomination. If the GOPe pulls out some dirty tricks to exclude him, then Trump needs to run third party and I’ll go with him. But the fact is that the GOPe is too much of a scared little girl to try to go up against Trump. They might think about plotting against him in a secret room, but they will never pull the plug.
Trump isn’t planning to run third party. He’s planning on winning the nomination. And at 24%, he’s already half way there. Trump won’t run third party if he loses a fair contest. They’ll have to really demonstate unAmerican and unfair tactics before he’ll run independently.
And it’s still silly to talk about unless and until the RNC actually tries to do something unfair and stupid.
Did he threaten or did he answer a question?
He already said recently he didn’t want to split the votes.
But after the reports of the GOPe plotting to exclude Trump from the debates, Trump left the door open saying “if the RNC isn’t fair to me”.
I don’t blame him. He’s winning the GOP nomination. If the GOPe pulls out some dirty tricks to exclude him, then Trump needs to run third party and I’ll go with him. But the fact is that the GOPe is too much of a scared little girl to try to go up against Trump. They might think about plotting against him in a secret room, but they will never pull the plug.
Trump isn’t planning to run third party. He’s planning on winning the nomination. And at 24%, he’s already half way there. Trump won’t run third party if he loses a fair contest. They’ll have to really demonstate unAmerican and unfair tactics before he’ll run independently.
And it’s still silly to talk about unless and until the RNC actually tries to do something unfair and stupid.
re: Spoilsport Perot handed Clinton the 92 victory.
In 1992, Clinton 43%, Bush 38%, Perot 19%.
How many percent of Perot’s votes were actually from Republicans?
And its still silly to talk about unless and until the RNC actually tries to do something unfair and stupid.
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Yeah. Like they’ve never done anything unfair and stupid before.
Look. Trump won’t win the GOP nomination. And if he were to go 3rd party - which many suspect he’ll do as a favor to Hillary - then serious conservatives will still not vote for him.
I dont care how Bush augers in.
That's what the left, the MSM (including Fox) and the GOPe wants to happen.... because that would insure her highness' victory for sure.
Lets say its Clinton / Bush / Trump.
Id vote Trump.
The other two are politically identical: Big Government spenders.
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I agree.
There seem to be a lot of closet Hillary fans on Free Republic.
Pretty impressive, since he just got started.
The writer fails to note what destroyed Perot's campaign,in addition to his paranoid incident. He simply did not know how to speak effectively on TV. Using TV effectively--that is with an aura of spontaneity--rather than looking spaced out reading a ghosted speech off a teleprompter--would make an absolutely enormous difference.
As for Wallace falling from 23% (and rising) to I think 13%, that was a result of the Left raising the same war scare that had hurt Barry Goldwater in 1964, after Wallace named General Curtis LeMay as his Vice Presidential candidate.
Now, to be sure, the media would probably pull out the stops to shoot Trump down. It is not a cinch that he would win. But to suggest his ceiling would be 20% is simply an appeal to the wishful thinking of those who are hoping he will just go away.
I’ll vote Trump in a 3rd party unless Cruz gets the ‘R’ nod. There aren’t any other conservatives, are there?
No one is factoring in how Trump will do in debates.
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We’ll know how he did in the first debate in 12 days or so.
August 6th is rapidly approaching.
The title to the article makes it clear why the GOP is going to have to show some respect to Trump. It may come down to he alone having the power to decide whether the GOP wins the next election. Even if he cannot win, he can ensure any Repub loses.
> “Trump Would Lose Badly In A Third-Party Bid, But He Could Take The Republican Down, Too”
538 sounds like a cool punk group yeah?
Too bad they’re just punks.
Trump merges with Cruz wins. Here’s how:
It’s not such such a small chance today as it was in past elections because of a huge relatively unreported change in voter affiliations:
What if TRUMP/CRUZ jump on a third party ticket? Call it the United States Independent Party (USIP).
They can do it and win. Many think it will be Perot deja-vu all over again; they would be wrong.
Since 1992 the electorate has changed and since 2012 there has been a seldom reported sea change in voter registration affiliations.
In 2008, 24% of the electorate identified themselves as Independent. After 2012 and by 2014 that number surged to 42% of the electorate identifying themselves as Independent. That is an ENORMOUS change and 2/3s of those 42% identify themselves as conservatives with most of the rest as moderates or leaning conservative.
As a result of this huge growth in the ranks of Independents, there remain only 27% republican affiliated and 31% democrat affiliated. Of the 27% republican registered, 18% are conservative base and the rest moderate or establishment, and the conservative base are mostly following Cruz and now Trump. Of the democrats 31%, 8% (of electorate) are Latino-Americans and 5% (of electorate) are Reagan democrats. Cruz will take 40% of the Latino vote (as he did in TX) and all of the Reagan democrats or will share them with Trump.
Cruz has also tapped into the 17 million apathetic but conservative-leaning Americans that dont bother to register or vote because they see a one-party system and correctly determine that the candidates offered represent the same oligarchs. So they withdraw and stay quiet until they have had contact in town halls with Ted Cruz. Now they are fired up.
There is no danger of a Perot-like splinter of the GOP. There is the very real possibility that Cruz/Trump takes (in % of total electorate) 28% as Independents, 3% Latino-Americans, 5% of Reagan democrats, up to 18% of the GOP conservative base and millions more who are inspired for the first time in a generation to register and show up to vote.
No matter how it is sliced, Trump/Cruz leaves the democrats and GOPe at a loss in a 3-way race. If a 3rd party movement were to emerge, the only way to stop the above confluence of political realities is to fantasize that the democrats and republicans will merge officially < NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
But a 3rd Party movement is still in the fringe and will likely not happen. However, a merging of Trump and Cruz is very possible.
“I think Bernie goes 3rd party if the Democrats give Hillary the nod.”
This should be noted and repeated. It is why Hillary is trying to tack more left and I suspect Bernie is getting scowls from DNC people. In the end, I doubt Bernie is strong-willed enough to survive the Clinton machine but he could be quite influential if he chose to be.
If that’s snark, recall RomneyCare.
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