A Third Party? Great. Third Candidate? Not So Much.
Plus: The Shadow Wars of Michael Vickers
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LEE DRUTMAN AND BEAU TREMITIERE: The Presidential Race Could Use a Third PartyāBut Not a Third Candidate.
THE GROUP āNO LABELSā HAS RAISED at least $70 million in order to run a centrist, third-party ticket in the 2024 presidential election. Theyāre right that two parties is too few. But there is a much better way to rebuild the political center and to give Americans more choices at the ballot box: fusion voting, which allows third parties to cross-nominate candidates without spoiling, giving voice and power to the millions who donāt like either the Democratic or Republican parties. And it has a long and rich history in the American political tradition.
The current debate over third-party candidates posits a false choice. The critics of a potential No Labels candidacy are right: a centrist third-party ticket is all but certain to fail and throw the election into chaos. Regardless of which side gains electorally, a spoiled election would be bad for our democracy.
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GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: The Shadow Wars of Michael Vickers.
IT WAS A SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER, Dr. Anthony DeRiggi, who started it all. In 1971, he slipped a New York Times article about a CIA covert operation in Laos to a desultory high-school student by the name of Michael Vickers. A dream was launched, writes Vickers in his new memoir, By All Means Available: āI imagined myself leading secret armies in far-off lands and winning against impossible odds.ā That dream was realized and much more. Vickers went on to become a Green Beret, a CIA operations officer, and then one of the most consequential defense and intelligence officials of the past four decades.
MONA CHAREN: How to Read Polls Without Terror.
Experts will advise you never to eat meat with cream sauce at a buffet; always to lock your car even when just dashing into the 7-Eleven for two minutes; and never to read national polls in the year before an election.
I obey only the first two advisories, and admittedly, reading polls about the 2024 presidential election takes a toll on my mental health. That said, I think there are coping mechanisms available for those who do succumb.
šØOVERTIMEšØ
Happy Thursday! Are there more tapes? A report in the UK Independent says that the charges against Trump may effectively double in number.
Pence makes a secret trip to Ukraineā¦ And meets with President Zelenskyy. Heās not likely going to be the nominee, but more of this from Republicans, please.
Looking back atā¦ Boy Meets World. So many great little nuggets in this item!
Geraldo quits FOXā¦ After getting fired from āThe Fiveā, the famed mustachioed man leaves the Murdoch empire after 23 years.
Also at FOXā¦ Jesse Wattersās attempt to dunk on President Bidenās confusion about Ukraine/Iraq ended with him confusing Iraq and Afghanistan. The new face of FOX primetime!
Meanwhile, in the āFree State of Floridaā¢āā¦ Gov. DeSantis sent nearly $100m in COVID relief money to a project that would benefit one of his benefactors.
ā¦And in Franceā¦ The nationwide protests continue following the fatal shooting of a teenager.
Matt Labash on our lying problemā¦ And how George Orwell can stop it.
Ten people bustedā¦ By DOJ for insider trading about COVID-19 treatments.
Moms4Libertyā¦ Continue to not care about the past associations of its speakers, even if theyāre OathKeepers who spoke at a pro-confederate conference.
Why so many cities and statesā¦ Are changing their flags.
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