“BREAKING: The GOP primary is turning out as everyone has known it would for months now,” wrote Ezra Klein of the Washington Post following Mitt Romney’s decisive victory in Florida on Tuesday. Although only four states have voted, the Republican presidential primary is coming to a close. Over half of the original field of candidates has fled, leaving behind broken-hearted supporters and half-hearted endorsements.
“Newt is not perfect, but who among us is,” said Rick Perry of the candidate he decided to support, shortly before the South Carolina primary. In his farewell speech, Jon Huntsman said the race “has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks not worthy of the American people.” Huntsman then endorsed Romney and brushed off reporters who asked if he still thought Romney was, in his own words, “a perfectly lubricated weathervane” and “unelectable.”
In the beginning of January, 44% of Republicans had a negative opinion of their crop of candidates. That number increased to 52% by the end of the month, according to Pew Research. “I’m thinking of writing in Homer Simpson,” one Republican voter in South Carolina told me.
But it’s not just Republicans who are dissatisfied with their options for president this year. Less than half of all Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll, believe there is any candidate in the race who would “make a good president.”
It’s now too late in the process for any new candidate to enter the race through either major party. So what’s a concerned voter to do?
In years past, the answer was to hold your nose and pull the lever for the least worst candidate come November. This year, however, you can take charge and make 2012 a three way race through Americans Elect. (Imagine: someone to vote for, not just someone to vote against.)
Americans Elect is securing a line on the ballot in all 50 states for a ticket to be named directly by the people through the first-ever online nominating convention. Any registered voter can sign up to participate as a Delegate at AmericansElect.org. And, starting today, Delegates can begin supporting and drafting specific candidates for the Americans Elect nomination. If you’re one of the 61% of Americans who want to see a third choice on the ballot who is untethered to either major party, this is your chance to decide who that candidate should be.
Take a look around the country. Of all the people in America, who is smart enough, tough enough, bold enough, the right age, wise beyond their years, experienced, decisive, compassionate, and honest? America could use a president like that. So go find her. Draft him. Rather than complaining about this year’s election on Facebook and Twitter, why not use these tools to build a draft movement for the candidate you want to run?
Beginning this spring, the field of qualified self-declared and drafted candidates will be winnowed down to six through a series of primary balloting. At that point, the candidates must agree to accept the nomination if they win, answer a “platform of questions” assembled by the Delegates, and pick a running mate from a different political party than their own. The Americans Elect ticket will then be chosen through runoff voting in June and placed on the general election ballot.
Presidential elections belong to we, the people – not the super PACs, talking heads, or campaign consultants, and not the handful of states that get to vote early in the process. Americans Elect is shifting the power to choose our candidates from the parties back to the people, where it belongs. Today’s technology makes it possible, and today’s politics makes it necessary. But it’s up to you to help make it happen at AmericansElect.org.
Now is not the time to settle down. Now is the time to sign up.
Nick Troiano is National Campus Director at Americans Elect and a recent graduate of Georgetown University. Full details about candidate committees and draft movements for Americans Elect is available on their website.
Photo Credit: Nick Troiano, AmericansElect.
The Discussion
I agree with all prior comments--PARTICIPATE!! Americans Elect is what America desperately needs. My candidate is BUDDY ROEMER who is definitely interested in AE but hasn't yet (far as I know) officially declared himself an AE candidate. See buddyroemer.com!!
I signed up on American's Elect this summer and am anxiously awaiting their slate to be presented. A strong slate will make this election a three-way race. If voters can actually break the mindset that a vote for someone other than the Rep or Dem is wasted, this election could be the 2nd "shot heard around the world."
I'm running to win Americans Elect primary. My website is www.kotlikoff2012.org. Please consider supporting my candidacy by contributing $25 or more and registering at www.americanselect.org and then going to http://www.americanselect.org/candidates/latest-drafted?page=3 and clicking Suport.
Americans Elect is a preview of what might happen in American politics if Washington does begin to do a better job bringing us qualified candidates for president. Thinking back, every president since Reagan blundered, and, in the next election, had to fight for a second term or was defeated. George W. Bush said "read my lips", Bill Clinton had an overactive libido, George Bush didn't do his homework before he invaded a large chunk of the Middle East and Barack Obama has promised and promised and delivered next to nothing.
Every one of these men had terrible ratings during their tenure and it was that that brought them down or almost caused them to lose in their bid to be reelected (we shall see about Obama). We, the voters, are not voting people into office; we are voting people out of office and crossing our fingers. I guess we should blame the old line political machines of both parties for bringing us men that were unqualified intellectually or morally or practically.
Americans Elect may be the way to go in the future; we will see if the process works. I have my doubts, but I could be wrong. In any case, it should give us hope that there are other options to the current two party system, which has failed to bring us another Ronald Reagan or JFK in the past 25 years.
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There is at least one more compelling reason to support Americans Elect. It may be the only organization that is capable of changing the hostile political environment in this country. Watch what happens in Congress if a third bipartisan party wins the presidency. They will realize that they are next
It all comes down to getting a solid centrist to moderate candidate, with some real chops, to run. Right now there aren't any who have even motioned towards an interest with any chance to do more than rock the boat a tad. If a serious candidate throws their hate in, everything changes.
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In March of '68 Robert Kennedy entered the Democratic primary because he saw that the incumbent President Johnson was out of touch with the sentiment of a new generation who wanted out of Vietnam and yearned for a candidate who would take the country in a new direction. It wasn't too late then...
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If enough citizens participate in its process, Americans Elect could revolutionize our political system, nominating a 3rd contender who could possibly pull an upset. With information technology being the platform upon which our nation seems to be reorganizing itself, I believe we need a candidate with the knowledge and foresight that help us accomplish this paradigm shift. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, is my nominee. Join and support my candidate.
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Many will "scoff" at the efforts of Americans Elect 2012. More will quietly contend, Americans Elect 2012 will not produce the candidate who will win the White House come November. Both groups have a right to their beliefs.
Yet I pose to all, is either major party actually proposing an Agenda based on the 3 r's, Reform, Refinance and Restructure the basic tenants for combating the ills facing our nation today?
If Americans Elect 2012 can do no more than Raise the level of debate over how this nation must reverse our liabilities which have lowered real wages, justly mitigate eour national debt crisis and equitably address rethinking the entitlement process, they will have succeeded.