Chuck Todd, Host of Meet the Press, Says he is Surprised There is No Strong Presidential Candidate Running Outside the Two Major Parties

Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”, said on Sunday, July 5, that he is surprised no strong presidential candidate has emerged who is running outside the two major parties.

Historically, such candidates don’t emerge until the election year itself. Theodore Roosevelt didn’t decide to organize his Progressive Party until June 1912, after Roosevelt had been defeated for the Republican presidential nomination. Robert La Follette didn’t announce as an independent progressive candidate until July 4, 1924, after it became apparent the Democratic national convention wouldn’t nominate a progressive. Strom Thurmond didn’t launch his States Rights campaign for the presidency until July 1948, after the Democratic national convention had voted to add a civil rights plank. Ross Perot didn’t even hint that he would be an independent candidate for president until February 20, 1992, the night he said on Larry King’s interview show that he would run as an independent only if his supporters successfully petitioned to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Anderson v Celebrezze took note of the nation’s history to justify striking down early petition deadlines for independent and new political parties. The reason strong presidential candidates don’t emerge until the election year is that everyone is waiting to see who the major parties will nominate, and at this point no one can predict the Republican nominee, and even the Democratic nominee is not certain to be Hillary Clinton. Thanks to Presidential Debate News for the link.


Comments

Chuck Todd, Host of Meet the Press, Says he is Surprised There is No Strong Presidential Candidate Running Outside the Two Major Parties — 5 Comments

  1. Meet the Press has been a propaganda platform for Prez monarchists for decades and decades.

    i.e. nonstop contempt for the gerrymander Congress and all power to each Prez tyrant monarch.
    ——
    P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.

  2. Chuck Todd is a lousy journalist and analyst. He is almost exclusively interested in refereeing partisan warfare: letting politicians trot out their talking points and safeguarding the Beltway consensus. Meet the Press, even back in 2013 before Todd, was regularly discussing Clinton’s inevitability.
    The corporate MSM (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC) is largely a status quo force. Sure, it was in favor of gay marriage (though late in getting there), but when it comes to real, democratic empowerment, it simply does not care. It is more interested in rehashing whatever sensational story CNN has decided to make the national concern on any given day.
    Most of the major political reforms take place at the state level, but the MSM only focuses on state issues when there is a conflagration, a shooting, or an incendiary remark by some backwoods state senator – nothing that takes much time to explain, and nothing that can’t be accompanied by a montage of dramatic images. It would be great if they focused on the issues that you cover, Richard. Just think of the momentum that would be possible if they regularly talked about ballot access, electoral reform, and minor party and independent candidates.
    It didn’t take long for the MSM’s gaze to essentially force SC to consider removing the Confederate flag. Imagine what would happen if the issues covered here received the same national attention. Think of the changes! Then turn on Meet the Press and lament the state of political journalism in this country and realize we’ll all just have to do it ourselves in near anonymity.

  3. I suspect that if Bernie Sanders does indeed lose the Democratic Party primary, Jill Stein could be that strong candidate (Jill still has to win the Green primary, but it’s far more likely that she’ll win the Green primary than Bernie winning the Democratic primary). It’ll depend on whether Bernie’s supporters actually have the nerve to reject Hillary and vote for the candidate in the general election that best matches their beliefs, which would be Jill of course. She could end up getting 5 or more percent of the vote.

  4. Good point, Joshua.
    I will be voting for Sanders, but if he loses the nomination, I think I will vote for Stein.

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