If the polls looked like that Sanders wouldn’t run as a third or fourth party candidate because he would be the frickin’ Democratic nominee for chrissakes!
Ridiculous.
Not necessarily. It’s entirely possible that Sanders could do better than Clinton among independents.
But unless they vote in the D primary in their state for Bernie, **IT. DOESN’T. MATTER. **
He has ruled out running as an independent or third party candidate. Won’t do it.
Not gonna happen anywhere but in your imagination.
I really gotta get my hands on some of what you’re smoking.
So a guy who has always run as an independent, always been willing to risk a Republican being elected because he split the leftie vote, now finds religion?
I say he’s taken that stance because he’s not trying to win. He’s trying to move the conversation to the left. But what if he can win? What if he comes close, but loses only because Clinton played dirty? What if angry supporters clamor for him to run, the Green Party offers him the nomination if he wants it, and polls show he can win in a 4-person field?
Now of course we can call this imaginary because the odds of any of this happening are extremely remote. Just not remote enough to say never. Clinton very well might fight dirty. Sanders very well might make it a close race. Trump may very well run as an independent, thus making Sanders’ entrance not nearly as likely to doom the Democrat. And Sanders’ refreshing honesty could very well appeal to independents who are Democrat-leaners and even some Republicans who are tired of political BS and just want someone who will level with them.
And please. “I won’t run…” Hmmm, I wonder who said that? Oh yeah, the bullshitter currently in the Oval Office.
This. a “3rd” or “4th” candidate will not win. I mean, technically it’s always a 3 or 4-way election because there are always 3 or 4 candidates on enough ballots to mathematically win and usually at least 5-6 candidates on a significant number of states. But outside of the top 2, there is no race. Our system is set up in such a way and then re-affirmed through so many subsequent policies that it is pretty near impossible for a minor party or outside candidate, even a billionaire buffoon, to win.
Cite that he’s ever “been willing to risk a Republican being elected”? Did he ever run against a Democrat with a chance to win?
Yes, his first House race he actually did cause the election to be won by a Republican:
Of course, since Sanders got twice as many votes as the Democrat, it’s fair to call that one the Democrats’ fault.
But that’s my point. If a general election poll was to show Sanders polling ahead of Clinton, it’s the same dynamic. In my hypothetical, Sanders leads a 4-way field by 10 points. That’s a pretty tempting race if you’re a career independent. A chance to make history.
If we are to believe that Sanders is not ego-driven (unlike most politicians), then that shouldn’t matter to him. But the likelihood of him leading a 4 way race is probably even lower than Trump’s chances of winning the Republican nomination.
Again, it would take an extremely unlikely sequence of events. It’s just not impossible, or even so improbable that we can just discount it out of hand. Each of the four things that I cited need to happen could happen, it’s just very unlikely that they’ll all happen. Most notably him appealing so much to independents that he leads Clinton in a 4-way race but doesn’t win the nomination. That would require Sanders to not only do better among independents than Democrats despite being to Clinton’s left, but it would require Democratic base voters to not know that Sanders has become more electable than Clinton.
I’m just trying to help out the OP, rather than just giving the easy answer of “never happen”. The OP broached the topic precisely because it is within the realm of possibility, however remote.
I really, REALLY, gotta get my hands on some of what you’re smoking.
I just want a 3-way race.
Sanders (“Socialist!” swoons Fox News, breaking out the fainting couches) and some young firebrand like Corey Booker (who does good PR but I honestly can’t tell you anything he’s done in office). “First Black Vice-President”
The Revenge of George W Bush; aka Jeb Bush-Liz Cheney (to be totally ironic)
Donald Trump-Sarah Palin For pure fascist yet strangely anti-government DERP.
Something like this is actually semi-plausible (well maybe not the Liz Cheney part), which makes it all the more :eek:.
The Tories and Grits can run on this side of the border now?
Trump doesn’t have to use his own money; he can make somebody else pay – the US taxpayer.
He sets up a ‘Trump for President’ committee or even creates a political party (like Perot did) as a legally incorporated group. Then instead of spending his own money on the campaign, he loans millions to that corporation. Then, after he loses in the election, that committee is left with hundreds of millions in debt, and no more income. So it files bankruptcy. Donald Trump then declares his loan to them as a bad debt, and writes it off on his income taxes.
Bingo! Trump has gratified his ego by running for President, got untold amounts of publicity, and had somebody else (the taxpayers) pay for it.
If the Campaign Finance laws have been tightened enough to close this loophole, then he just has one of his billionaire buddies do the loan (like Carl Icahn, his planned Treasury Secretary?). Or do it through one of the big banks or Wall Street finance companies they control.
Holy cow, I have not idea if this is legal or plausible to pull off but your ability to channel what I imagine could easily be Trump’s thinking is frightening. That completely sounds like how he would think.