And Then There Were Three

Or two. Or, technically, I suppose--especially with the trouble John McCain has been having lately--only one. But Ralph Nader made it official today and jumped into the presidential race. This will be his fourth time on the ballot, after being an unofficial Green Party candidate in 1996. Whatever else he might have on his agenda, he'll definitely be trying to make sure he garners more than 463,655 votes, 0.38 of the total--that's his personal low from 2004. He did better in 1996, when he wasn't even actively campaigning. With barely more than a third of a percent of the vote last time around, Nader is clearly irrelevant to the process this time around, but the impish Tim Russert, apparently intending to stir up trouble somehow, provided him with marquee position on today's Meet the Press.

Nader may not be the only prominent third-party candidate this time around. Ron Paul, who previously ran as the Libertarian Party ticket twenty years ago, has declined to mount an independent or third-party run this time around, but he's not the only possibility out there. Apparently disenchanted with the major-party possibilities--and Ralph Nader--there are more than a couple of efforts to bring New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg into the race (and it's not at all clear which of these may be operating with Bloomberg behind the curtain). There are various sites with petutions. The one with the biggest groundswell seems to be draftmichaelbloomberg.com, which claims to have 11,390 signatures after the petition has been up more than a month. Unite for Mike says it has 2474 signatures. Run Mike Run doesn't announce its numbers, but when I took a look at the signatures on the petition page, it listed 598. Although there are probably others out there, these three petitions are moving in on 15,000 signatures. With numbers like these, Bloomberg might even give Nader a run for his money.

Bloomberg and Nader might not be alone in their runs, though. Mike Huckabee's still hanging in there, and he's actively addressing the possibility of a brokered convention. If things go that far but he doesn't pull off the nomination, the Republicans will be moving forward with a potentially wounded nominee. Huckabee may not be able to ask for a much better opportunity to mount an insurgent religious right campaign. He met up with James Dobson recently, and neither man will say what their discussion entailed. I can't imagine this subject didn't come up.

McCain, Obama or Clinton, Nader, Bloomberg, Huckabee. And it's still only February. Is it possible that the race will get even weirder before we're all done?