Frequently, minor parties in the U.S. decide to stop running candidates for public office, but they continue to exist as organizations and they continue to publish a periodical. Sometimes the life span of the periodical is far greater than the lifespan of that party’s electoral activity.

The National States Rights Party was formed in 1958 and placed nominees on the ballot in elections 1960 through 1964. After 1964, it ran its nominees in Democratic primaries for ten years, and then completely stopped running candidates. But its monthly newspaper continued. That newspaper was called The Thunderbolt. Later it was renamed The Truth At Last. After 50 years, however, it will no longer be published. The editor for the last 50 years, Edward R. Fields, is retiring and recommending to his subscribers that they subscribe to the David Duke Report.

Other minor parties that have stopped running candidates, but which still exist as organizations and which still have periodicals, are the Communist Party (which publishes the People’s Weekly World) and the Socialist Labor Party (which publishes The People).

As news sources have reported, Barack Obama indicated very early on August 23 that he wants the Democratic National Convention to choose Joe Biden for vice-president. CNN reported the news at 1 a.m. eastern time, and the Obama campaign sent out text messages to Obama supporters a few hours later.

2008 is the first presidential election in U.S. history at which neither major party’s vice-presidential nominee was known as late as August 22. At least one major party’s complete ticket was realistically known by August 8, in all previous presidential elections. Of course, in approximately half of all presidential elections, the incumbent vice-president was running for re-election, so in those elections the identity of one of the major party vice-presidential candidates was known, or assumed, even before the presidential election year itself.