Since the election is coming up in two months, I thought we should have a thread for the lesser (in terms of popularity, anyway) candidates. I know there's already an Election 2012 thread, but that thread is a clusterfuck, to be honest. Besides, this board is practically dead anyway, so who cares?
Here are the other, non-Obama/Romney candidates I know of so far (with my stupid opinions attached):
Gary Johnson (Libertarian) - I like this guy. He has a lot of good social and foreign policy stances. Not too crazy about his fiscal policy, but I'm not a libertarian, so that's to be expected. He's still better than either of the frontrunners. Also former governor of New Mexico, so he has executive experience.
Jill Stein (Green) - According to the extremely simplified online political survey I took, my views line up with Stein's the most. She's a doctor with a degree from Harvard, and she's clearly intelligent. I like a lot of her views, though she's somewhat to the left of me - but I'm fine with that. I'm thinking of voting for her.
Rocky Anderson (independent?) - I think this guy might have a party, but if so it must be one of those "one-candidate" parties centered around just him. He's the former mayor of Salt Lake and a former Democrat who left the party in the 90s. Again, I like most of his stances: he's sort of like what a Democrat would have been in the 60s or 70s. Doesn't have a lot of name-recognition, though.
Buddy Roemer (independent) - former Republican, former congressman and governor of Louisiana. Roemer has a history of dealing with corruption, especially in his notoriously graft-ridden home state. He's a conservative, but again, he's better than either Obama or Romney, I think. In fact, all of the above are better than them. None of them have a hope in Hell of winning, but that's how it is.
Are there any other viable and interesting candidates running right now? I know about joke candidates like Vermin Supreme, but I guess they don't count, except for a laugh maybe.
Well, voting for third-party candidates is not going to really get them elected because of the first-past-the-post voting system in place. There's something called the "spoiler effect" that just ends up securing the two mainstream parties in place. This video explains it rather well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo
I'm still voting third-party on principle, even though I know it'll do absolutely nothing.
>>2 Well yeah, I know very well that none of the above have a chance of winning the election because of how the electoral system is stacked. I'm also going to vote third party in protest, and I hope many other disaffected Americans will join us (though honestly I don't hope very much.)
How about Jack Fellure, candidate for the Prohibition Party? Don't think the Prohibition Party is relevant 80 years since the end of Prohibition? Well think again! They've drafted an official policy which includes:
>Believing that we, as humans, are created in the image and likeness of God, we call for the taxation of all forms of internet pornography at a level which discourages it...
[Fellure] asserts on his campaign website that his platform based on the 1611 Authorized King James Bible has never changed. As a candidate, he calls for the elimination of the liquor industry, abortion and pornography, and advocates the teaching of the Bible in public schools and criminalization of homosexuality. He has blamed the ills of society on those he has characterized as "atheists, Marxists, liberals, queers, liars, draft dodgers, flag burners, dope addicts, sex perverts and anti-Christians."
What a fun guy...
Or hey, what about Peace and Freedom? Rosanne Barr, macadamia nut farmer, actress, and comedian, is their presidential candidate. Cindy Sheehan (anyone remember her?) is running for VP.
What the hell is Peace and Freedom? Well, it's basically Democratic Socialist re-branded so as not to scare the straights. It routinely places fourth in every California race.
They have a combination of well-grounded policy and ideas from outer space: