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You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Grifters Gonna Grift Open Thread: No Ethics Labels & Other Third-Party Schemers

Grifters Gonna Grift Open Thread: No Ethics Labels & Other Third-Party Schemers

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Because ‘Incumbent busy presidenting, outcumbent swiftly unravelling’ scores few clicks, it’s time for another round of Third Party Proposals. NBC has a truly premium example — “No Labels floats the possibility of a coalition government or Congress selecting the president in 2024”:

No Labels, the organization attempting to assemble a third-party presidential unity ticket, is openly floating the prospect of a “coalition government” forming after the 2024 election if no candidate reaches the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the White House.

Officials with the group are mapping out an unlikely and largely unprecedented scenario where they could be in a position to cut deals on policy, Cabinet posts or even the vice presidency if their still-unformed ticket manages to win electoral votes and blocks a major-party nominee from winning the presidency outright.

“It’s possible that if you got to the Electoral College and no candidate had 270 [electoral votes], that there could be negotiation to create a coalition government where electors get traded between different candidates to get somebody over 270,” Ryan Clancy, the chief strategist for No Labels, told reporters on Wednesday. Clancy added: “There are quite a number of states that have what are called ‘unbound electors,’ which is to say: Those electors are not statutorily required to vote for the candidate that won their state at the Electoral College.”…

To quote an old proverb: And if my aunt had wheels, she could’ve been a tea cart!

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, a co-founder of No Labels, expanded on the group’s view of this potential scenario in an interview with NBC News on Thursday, suggesting the No Labels ticket could “cut a deal” with one of the major parties’ tickets.

“It could be Cabinet posts. It could be a policy concession. That’s the kind of thing it could be,” Davis said, adding the vice presidential position could also be part of the discussions…

Davis also said that the group is looking at another potential, if far-fetched, outcome: A contingent election in which the president is selected by the U.S. House…

The last third-party presidential candidate to win Electoral College votes was George Wallace, who ran on the American Independent Party ticket in 1968.

Elsewhere, Dean Phillips, moderately moderate for moderation:

ICYMI:


(That poor bird is blinking Get me outta here in Morse code.)

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  3. 3.

    Ken

    Was No Labels the one with the mentally deranged unlikely electoral map that showed how their candidate would win 400+ electoral votes?  They included California, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania in their total. I think the Democrats held Connecticut and DC, and the Republicans had Idaho and one of the Dakotas.

  4. 4.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    From the NYT via BlueSky:  Breaking News: The U.S. said it was ready to back a UN resolution calling for more desperately needed aid to the Gaza Strip, after a week of delays and negotiations. The timing of a vote was unclear.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Le sigh. Is simple research a totally lost art?

    …A majority of states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that require electors to pledge to cast their votes for their parties’ nominees for President and Vice President. Fifteen states have laws that impose sanctions on electors for breaking their pledge to cast their vote for their party’s nominee. In July 2020, the United States Supreme Court held that a State may “penalize an elector for breaking his pledge and voting for someone other than the presidential candidate who won his State’s popular vote.” (Chiafalo v. Washington, No. 19–465, slip op. at 1-2 (July 6, 2020).) Source

  6. 6.

    mvr

    Proving that they are misnamed – “NoPrinciples” would be a better name.  They are displaying their willingness to do anything to seem to stay in the game (which they hope the public will think is the game of winning actual power in an election) whereas the game they are staying in is promoting a Trump presidency.

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    Interest new poll results:

    Young Voters Overwhelmingly Support Biden Over Trump, Finds Economist/YouGov Poll

    A new Economist/YouGov poll shows young voters overwhelmingly support President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical rematch.
    The poll, released Wednesday, found that 53% of registered voters below the age of 30 throwing their support for Biden, and 24% backing Trump.

    Funny  how a web-based poll might show more young voters supporting Joe Biden.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    Who is funding No Labels? I have a bridge I’d like to offer for sale to them, prime NYC riverfront property.

  16. 16.

    Scout211

    Whut?  Too many threats of hanging going around these days.

    The federal agency charged with protecting POTUS, the Vice President and their immediate families, as well as major political candidates and high level government officials, have opened a probe into statements the former Dukes of Hazzard star made online against the President and his son Hunter Biden earlier today, Deadline has learned.

    Hours after publicly coming up short in the Season 10 finale of The Masked Singer, vocal conservative Schneider called for the execution by hanging of the “treason” guilty president and his indicted offspring. In a now deleted post (yep, he erased it pretty fast), the longtime Biden critic and Smallville actor made no secret of his belief a Donald trump critiquing POTUS should be dead – as a screen grab of that now delated post on X/Twitter reveals:

    [screen grab at the link].

    He denies it now, after he deleted it.

  17. 17.

    Ohio Mom

    It’s funny because I pretty much agree with Phillips’ vision of Medicare for All (I’d rather see Medicaid for All but I’d settle).

    I don’t believe him, trust him or like him, certainly would never vote for him, wish he would disappear right now, certainly but I can’t really argue with the ad.

  19. 19.

    Alison Rose

    I found a new favorite YouTube channel:

    Hey, I’m Kendra Gaylord! I talk about architecture in pop culture and how it connects to the places we live. I have a podcast called Someone Lived Here where I go to historic house museums and tell their stories. I also talk about stamps on TikTok.

    (She also has a few stamp videos on YT.)

    She’s got a great voice to listen to and a dry sense of humor. A few months ago, she had a video called “I watched 151 celebrity house tours and they’re full of lies” which went a little viral and has over a million views (most of her videos are in the 5-digit view count range). She’s awesome, go check her out.

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    I hope there are Democrats keeping track of who works for No Labels to ensure that none of them ever work in Dem party politics.

    Damn right, Dana.  The ratfucking piles.

  22. 22.

    piratedan

    the other group polluting the airwaves are the AFP folks (Americans For Prosperity), who give up the game when they talk about encouraging legislation that helps entrepreneurs and the failures of Bidenomics….  same reasonable Chamber of Commerce types with a soothing message about the benefits of capitalism

  24. 24.

    pluky

    Oh please. If no one gets 270 votes, the Republicans will leverage their delegation majority in the House to install the Orange Menace back in the White House.

  25. 25.

    kalakal

    No Labels floats the possibility of a coalition government or Congress selecting the president in 2024 

    Delusions of grandeur’r’us.

    They’ve the integrity of a raft made of triskets

    At least they’re open about admitting they can’t actually win by the boring old way of being voted for

  26. 26.

    Matt McIrvin

    I think it’s remarkable that they’re just openly touting the idea of some kind of antidemocratic Weird Trick anointing their candidate instead of people actually voting for that candidate. Clearly the appeal here isn’t to voters–is it just to rich shithead donors who actively relish the idea of subverting the will of the people?

  29. 29.

    OlFroth

    But we don’t have a parliamentary system.  If neither candidate gets to 270, then votes are cast by state in the House, which means Trump wins, and the United States loses.

  30. 30.

    Scout211

    Link

    Hana’s Elatr, the widow of assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has been granted asylum by the United States, according to a new report.

    The Washington Post reported that Elatr was granted asylum 5 years after her husband, who was a columnist for the Post, was killed by a Saudi assassination squadunder orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, U.S. intelligence determined.
    . . .

    Elatr has been in hiding for the last year and a half after her loss of employment as a flight attendant meant she would have to return to her native Egypt or to the United Arab Emirates, where she had lived before Khashoggi was murdered.

  31. 31.

    Tony G

    Wow.  Now I’m really tempted to donate a large sum of money to RFK Junior’s campaign so that I’ll have a chance to hang out with him for a day watching a falcon kill chipmunks.  There is nothing strange or cringe-inducing about that at all.

  33. 33.

    Chetan Murthy

    @HumboldtBlue: I’m reminded of those videos of people getting too close to buffalo and …. well, the inevitable happens and humans start flying thru the air.

    ETA: It hasn’t happened yet with Neal, but …. can’t be too long now.

  38. 38.

    Kelly

    Mrs Kelly brought an amusing Christmas story from her weekly acoustic jam. One of the regulars, an excellent mandolin and guitar teacher and player has been a Santa for many years. Sang and played professionally. He’s a big guy in his 70’s with luxuriant natural white hair and beard. Plays guitar and sings Christmas songs along with the usual Santa talks to the kids. “408 of the little bastards yesterday and I was jolly for every one of them.” He started doing zoom Santa visits in Covid and his hobby/side gig blossomed into a bonanza. As his schedule filled up he raised his rates. The 408 kid gig was at a major regional mall. He made several thousand dollars for that Santa gig, more than he ever made as performing bluegrass. He loves being Santa and I’m so happy to see him cash in on work he loves.

  39. 39.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

     Win a day of falconry with RFK Jr

    another falcon working with the яussians

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Scout211:

    Hours after publicly coming up short in the Season 10 finale of The Masked Singer 

    The what?  Oh, FOX’s Take It Off!  Take It Off!  That show?

  42. 42.

    ...now I try to be amused

    “No Labels floats the possibility of a coalition government…”

    Anything to stay in the news, eh? I remember the Reagan-Ford “co-presidency” speculation in 1976. The media love that kind of political novelty; they eat that shit up with a large spoon no matter how impractical or unlikely it is.

  44. 44.

    moonbat

    WHEN are we going to start taxing these billionaires out the wazoo? Clearly the novelty of large mansions, multiple yachts, and their own space stations has palled and they now consider themselves qualified to play king-maker, democratic norms be damned.

  45. 45.

    RevRick

    @Ken: The thing is, even if they could find the magic candidate to pull off this feat, they would still face a Congress composed of Republicans and Democrats, and then what?
    Neither party would have any incentive to work with the President, neither party would have any institutional loyalty to support the President, and neither party would be inclined to look favorably upon the person who defeated their party’s nominee. It would be a formula for disaster, and the only solution is that this third-party independent would have to align with either the Democrats or the Republicans in order to govern. Which would defeat the whole stated objective.

    All third parties are stupid. They are based on the premise that we can impose a parliamentary system on the structure of our Presidential democracy. Square peg meet round hole. Voting for a third party candidate is the equivalent of a toddler having a meltdown in the cereal aisle.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    David Corn at MoJo has several recent articles with receipts on No Labels.

    June 14 – No Labels is helping a firm that raises money for right-wing extremists

    June 23 – Here’s a list of donors funding its efforts to disrupt the 2024 race

    July 17 – No Labels claims it’s not a political party but it is setting up state parties

    Etc.

    I don’t think they’re worried about what happens after their candidate(s) win. They know that’s not going to happen. Their goal is to have Democrats lose enough votes so that the GQP wins, and so all the plutocrats funding them who are worried about OMG MY TAXES!!1 won’t have to worry about them going up.

    Other than a few cranks trying to help Jesus come back faster, and a few cranks that want Ratzinger reanimated to rule over the next Holy Roman Empire based in DC, and a few cranks who think that Hitler was a squish, what animates all the rest of the plutocrats is OMG MY TAXES!!1.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

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