Star One Smart Blog's

We're in for a repeat of the Ross Perot fiasco of 1992. I can just smell it.

After Ron Paul inevitably loses the Republican nomination, his next step will likely be a run as an Independent candidate (the Reform Party is sniffing , the Libertarian Party needs someone as well). Ron Paul is floundering in the Republican Party (something about the BDS he's spouting is so...Democratic), so jumping to an Independent platform is as inevitable as is...a Hillary nomination?

Perot pulled 18% of the 1992 Presidential election votes, and he's credited with sinking George H.W. Bush's re-election bid, allowing Bill Clinton to assume office with less than 50% of the popular vote. So, Ross Perot's candidacy still resonates...Hillary is riding Bill's twice-successful coat tails to this day. Paul's supporters realize this...

"If Ron Paul doesn't get the Republican nomination, you have to remember that Ross Perot got 18% of the vote as a third-party candidate with a message nowhere near as powerful as Dr. Paul’s. Perot’s third party was something that he had just invented on the spot – the Reform Party. Dr. Paul already has a strong association to an existing political party to funnel his supporters into should his bid for the Republican Nomination fall short....

...

"And when election day comes, and people are in that voting booth with the curtain closed, and nothing but themselves, their United States ballot, and their own personal best interests in mind, they're going to find themselves faced with an unfamiliar reality: that they have a decision, and that they're not making a choice between Hillary and Rudy (the lesser of two evils), but that they're making a choice between Hillary and Ron Paul, and Rudy and Ron Paul."

Unfortunately, Isaac Lopez is probably spot on. I know pulling a lever for Giuliani wouldn't make me happy at all. In 1992, I voted for GHWB, but my brothers, stalwart conservatives that they are, pulled for Perot. Of course they regretted that, and I bug them about it to this day, but they were hardly alone.

The added flavor of Ron Paul in the election soup will tend towards...spoiler. Regrettably, as in '92, for the Republicans.

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This photoshop submitted to Cowboy Blob's current pshop/caption contest (I love those things!)

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Updated and cross posted to the PW Pub