Jack Cafferty: Why a third party presidential candidate can't win
Jack Cafferty reported on his CNN special, "It's Getting Ugly Out There," that even though 70% of Americans believe the country is going in the wrong directions and are fed up with both the Democrats and the Republicans, nothing is likely to change. "There's a big appetite for something different out there,' said Cafferty, "but it ain't going to happen any time soon."
Candy Crowley listed for Cafferty the many ways in which "the system is stacked" against third party presidential candidates. They have to spend months collecting petitions in each of the 50 states just to get on the ballot, and then their names may not be printed as prominently as those of the two major parties' candidates. They are rarely included in the campaign debates. And though they can get federal funding, it doesn't arrive until after the election. Even for a charismatic candidate with popular appeal, these would be almost unsurmountable barriers.
"Those hurdles have been put in place one brick at a time by the Republicans and Democrats over a very long period of time," said Cafferty. "It's exclusionary, and it's there to keep the Ross Perots and all of the other third party candidates the hell out of our lives. They don't want them around because, god forbid, somebody without a Democrat or a Republican affiliation might come along and explain to the American people why these two parties aren't the answer to much of anything anymore."
"The opportunity is there, but there's just so much else battling against it," concluded Crowley.
The following video is from CNN's Jack Cafferty special "It's Getting Ugly Out There," broadcast on September 19, 2007.
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