[Egregious Philbin]

Over at DU they vilify the Green Party in exactly the same way - their platform is silly, they're stealing votes from our candidates...

Here in Massachusetts the two other parties widened the debate in the governor's race and the Libertarian party nearly got their ballot question passed. The two candidates (and a third Independent) addressed several issues the two mainstream candidates didn't want to talk about. Both candidates were serious people, there wasn't anything "silly" about them running.

[DWPittelli]

Exactly. As long as the Greens siphon off more Dem votes than the Libertarians siphon off Repub votes, there's not too much for Republicans to care about.

But I don't really disagree with Medved either. If you're happy that the Greens (aparently) threw Florida from Gore to Bush, then you should be unhappy that the Libertarians (apparently) threw the S. Dakota Senate seat from Thune to Johnson.

It would be nice if elections were whittled down to 2 candidates at the end (e.g., after an open primary) so that we could come up with a more pure preference system and didn't have these 3rd party dilemmas (which entrench the 2 parties).

[lasereye]

Here in Massachusetts the two other parties widened the debate in the governor's race

Whatever that means. At least you're not claiming the Libertarian actually had a chance to win, like some of the looney Libertarians like to claim.