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Mitt Romney meets with Bill Kristol to discuss potential 3rd party.

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T

Team Alucard

Banned
Via WaPo

In spite of his insistence that he will not run, Mitt Romney is being courted this week by a leading conservative commentator to reconsider and jump into the volatile 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate.

William Kristol, the longtime editor of the Weekly Standard magazine and a leading voice on the right, met privately with the 2012 nominee on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of launching an independent bid, potentially with Romney as its standard-bearer.

But knowing Romney’s reluctance, Kristol told Romney that if he remains unwilling to run, many top conservatives would appreciate having the former Massachusetts governor’s support for an independent candidate, should Kristol and other right-leaning figures enlist a willing contender.

“Obviously, if there were to be an independent candidacy, Romney’s support would be very important,” Kristol said. “I wanted to get his wisdom on whether it was more or less doable than I thought.”
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K

kess

Member
The Exploder said:
Get Bernie to run as independent too and we almost have a democracy.
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It's 1948 all over again!

Henry-Wallace-and-friend-19.jpg
 
M

McDougles

Member
gutter_trash said:
thread ruined
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Can't have people suggest more than two political leaders running for the highest office in the country. Where do they think we are, CANADA?!?!?

Bernie would have rather run as an Independent, but in the current system he has to run as a Democrat. He's said so himself.
 
G

GameAddict411

Member
This will annihilate any chance of a Republican getting in the white house. It will split the Republican vote and Hillary will dominate. GOP is in a shit hole that they digged for themselves.
 
C

Chichikov

Member
It's amazing that after all these years of being wrong about everything Bill Kristol still finds new things to be wrong about.

I mean, trying the 3rd party route at this point is stupid to begin with, but Romney?
Really?
That's the guy you think would be able to pull it off?
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
The Exploder said:
Nothing about the current system works in reality.
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Yes. It does. Just because people are too stupid to vote in down ticket representatives that support their interests, doesn't mean the system is broken.

People being lazy and not voting is why the system is not functioning right now.
 
T

Team Alucard

Banned
GameAddict411 said:
This will annihilate any chance of a Republican getting in the white house. It will split the Republican vote and Hillary will dominate. GOP is in a shit hole that they digged for themselves.
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The idea is to protect congress. If there is a legitimate conservative third party then the GOP senators up for re-election in moderate states can denounce Trump and throw their support behind Romney and hopefully avoid being taken down by Trump's toxicity.
 
V

VendettaRed07

Member
Team Alucard said:
The idea is to protect congress. If there is a legitimate moderate conservative third party then the GOP senators up for re-election can denounce Trump and throw their support behind Romney and hopefully avoid being taken down by Trump's toxicity.
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This is exactly why I don't want this to happen.
 
S

shem935

Banned
Team Alucard said:
The idea is to protect congress. If there is a legitimate moderate conservative third party then the GOP senators up for re-election can denounce Trump and throw their support behind Romney and hopefully avoid being taken down by Trump's toxicity.
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Don't know. In this scenario it feels like Trumps voters hostility to the turncoats would lead to them losing anyway.
 
T

Team Alucard

Banned
Frozenprince said:
Yes. It does. Just because people are too stupid to vote in down ticket representatives that support their interests, doesn't mean the system is broken.

People being lazy and not voting is why the system is not functioning right now.
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Disagree. The filibuster in its current form is absolute garbage that completey prevents congress from being functional in any way
 
A

Averon

Member
The best option of the GOP is give up on the WH this election cycle, disavow Trump every day until election day, and do everything in their power to salvage their down ticket races. It will be painful, but that gives them their best shot to save some semblance of respect of their party to the general public.

Is there a better option out there for them?
 
K

Knuckle Sandwich

Member
He's trying to build a replacement party for when Donald burns the GOP down. Shoulda started way sooner, Bill.

Let Bernie run 3rd party. I bet my balls he has about as much impact in a GE as Jill Stein.

Also fuck Bill Kristol.
 
D

Dishwalla

Banned
I can't even believe these guys are stupid enough to even consider this an option. Republicans, guys, you lost. Get over it, tough out at least four years of Hilldawg, regroup and try again in 2020. Just make sure Trump stays far far away.
 
S

shem935

Banned
Averon said:
The best option of the GOP is give up on the WH this election cycle, disavow Trump every day until election day, and do everything in their power to salvage their down ticket races. It will be painful, but that given them their best shot to save some semblance of respect of their party to the general public.

Is the a better option out there for them?
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That's the likeliest rode to a split party. Not sure which way is best right now or least worst.
 
A

Aaron Strife

Banned
Frozenprince said:
Yes. It does. Just because people are too stupid to vote in down ticket representatives that support their interests, doesn't mean the system is broken.

People being lazy and not voting is why the system is not functioning right now.
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Yuuuuuup.

(34% of America votes in 2014 leading to shit Congress)
People who didn't vote in 2014: Obviously the system is broken

Presidential turnout is a joke too. Less than 60% come the fuck on. I know there are many people for whom voting is really an inconvenience but too many people just don't give a shit.
 
V

VendettaRed07

Member
Averon said:
The best option of the GOP is give up on the WH this cycle, disavow Trump every day until election day, and do everything in their power to salvage their down ticket races.

Is the a better option out there for them?
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I don't even know if disavowing him is a good plan. If they do everything they can to sink trump, the republican base will revolt and blame the election loss on them not accepting the will of the voters and running with the candidate they chose.
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
There's no point. Or maybe there is, but it won't do much except for a show of resistance without really offering any.

You're going to have a demoralized base (at least, the anit-Trump contingent), and they're going to be less likely to turnout to vote and help the down-ticket races, and offering a sacrificial lamb independent candidate isn't going to do much to help.

Take your lumps. You conservative power brokers and media figures created the Trump voter with your more than 25 years of rhetoric going back to at least Clinton 1, or more than 5 decades going back to the southern strategy and anti-civil rights resistance, now you have to live with them. The chickens came home to roost. Good luck salvaging your joke of a party after November.
 
M

McDougles

Member
Frozenprince said:
People being lazy and not voting is why the system is not functioning right now.
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Why does Montana have the same number of votes in the electoral college as Wyoming despite nearly double the population?

Why is the Austin area deep red when it's the most liberal city in the State?

B1hgTzwIgAApIVe.png


People are voting, but they've been cockblocked by the system they're trying to overthrow. The game is rigged against them.

The system is inherently fucked.
 
B

Branduil

Member
Please proceed, governor.

Team Alucard said:
The idea is to protect congress. If there is a legitimate conservative third party then the GOP senators up for re-election in moderate states can denounce Trump and throw their support behind Romney and hopefully avoid being taken down by Trump's toxicity.
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Trump would tell all of his voters not to vote for the people supporting Romney so it wouldn't work anyway.
 
N

NoblesseOblige

Banned
Wonder how the anti-establishment individuals would react when Trump takes the established base and old GOP dogs evacuate to an independent one.
 
N

Nowy

Member
The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President
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-12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This is why third party runs are a bad idea in this system (on top of the whole splitting your base thing). If we had Trump, Clinton, Sanders, and Romney all running for the president, I doubt one of them would get a majority of the electorate. So then the Republican controlled House of Representatives would choose the President ergo congratulations President Romney. A straight up popular vote system was considered but ultimately this won out.
 
H

HanzSnubSnub

Member
This Kristol guy sounds like an idiot for trying to get 2012's sloppy seconds to run independently even though Romney doesn't want to. Plus Romney is a Republican, it's pretty much his duty to support the GOP.

A 3rd party candidate at this point in the race is useless, since they would have missed out on a year of free press. They would pretty much be nobodies.
 
A

Averon

Member
VendettaRed07 said:
I don't even know if disavowing him is a good plan. If they do everything they can to sink trump, the republican base will revolt and blame the election loss on them not accepting the will of the voters and running with the candidate they chose.
Click to expand...

shem935 said:
That's the likeliest rode to a split party. Not sure which way is best right now or least worst.
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They are already heading for a historic election loss whether they support Trump or not. At least by going on the record to disavow him, they are showing the public that not the entire GOP party support Trump's toxic agenda. It might gives them something to build off of for the future. If they give Trump heir full backing, the party will never be able to live that down. They will lose non-white voters for generations instead of maybe a couple election cycles.

No option is good for them right now. If the GOP want to survive, they got to stop thinking so short-term and think longer-term.
 
M

Mr.Mike

Member
Wait, if Congress decides who's president if nobody gets the majority of the electoral college, would 4 parties splitting the vote create what is basically a Parliamentary system in the US?
 
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