A Four Way Presidental Election in 2008

What would last years presidental election have looked like if Hilary Clinton and Ron Paul ran in addition to John McCain and Barrack Obama? Let's say the Clinton is Federalist, Ron Paul is Constitutional, and the other two remain what they were. How would the election have turned out?
 
The Democratic Party would beat Clinton to death with a rubber hose. Assuming Obama and Clinton both made it to the ballot, McCain would win handily. But Clinton wouldn't make it to the ballot because, as mentioned above, the Democrats would physically strap her to the outside of the space shuttle if necessary to keep her from splitting the left vote.
 
I could possibly see a Clinton-Obama split but a McCain-Paul split?

You'd need someone else. Huckabee might fit the bill.
 
Or why not see more mainstream support for the Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Socialist parties and two independents instead? A split between the following:

Constitution Party - Chuck Baldwin
Green Party - Cynthia McKinney
Libertarian Party - Bob Barr
Socialist Party USA - Brian Moore
Independent - Ralph Nader
Independent - Alan Keyes
 
Actually, if we want to be REALLY different, if some people in the media made a big deal of the Duelfer and Kay reports (Not to mention Hussein Kamil and Scott Ritter's statements that Iraq was disarmed- and both were made prior to 2001...), Bush and Kerry would have lost a great deal of support for the nomination- perhaps even losing most public support (Both backed the Iraq invasion, despite evidence to the contrary...Kerry was on the Foreign Relations committee...). This would leave four groups of candiates in 2004...
Libertarian Bloc: Badnarik/Campagna (Libertarian), Jay/Taylor* (Personal Choice)
Religious Right Bloc: Amondson/Pletten (Prohibition/Concerns of People), Peroutka/Baldwin (Constitution), Dodge/Lydick (Prohibition of Colorado)
Green Bloc: Cobb/LaMarche (Green), Nader/Camejo (Reform)
Socialist/Communist Bloc: Peltier**/Jordan (Peace and Freedom) Brown/Herbert (Socialist USA) Van Auken/Lawrence (Socialist Equality) Calero***/Hawkins (Socialist Workers) Harris/Trowe (Alternate Socialist Workers) Parker/Gutierrez (Worker's World)

All these opposed the war. If they got together along the bloc model, one or more of them could have a chance in this alternate timeframe...

Source: http://www.politics1.com/p2004.htm

*AKA Marilyn Chambers
** Yes, THAT Peltier
*** Calero isn't a US citizen...
 
I think this election might work

Republican-John McCain/Sarah Palin

Democratic-Barack Obama/Joseph Biden

Independent-Michael Bloomberg/Ron Paul
 
I think this election might work

Republican-John McCain/Sarah Palin

Democratic-Barack Obama/Joseph Biden

Independent-Michael Bloomberg/Ron Paul

I agree that that could have happened, but the title said four-way, so we'd have to try to find another viable ticket. Best bet would be someone who is a bit out of the mainstream of a major party, but who has his own niche following. I'm thinking either Ron Paul on the right or Dennis Kucinich on the Left. Maybe Lieberman would get in if the Republicans had nominated someone besides McCain.
 
Ron Paul being a serious contender would require people to vote for him. He had very little support.
 
Serious multiple (over 4 candidates getting at least 5 percent of the popular vote) party elections can only occur in the modern era with the elimination/modification of the electoral college.

Even if the ASB's magically put an amendment through to make this happen, it would take a generation of education to get the public to effectively vote for minor party candidates.

I would have LOVED Ron Paul to get 10 percent of the popular vote to encourage REAL conservative fiscal values into politics.
 
A several-way debate might help.

But the debates are only open to candidates who poll above a certain percentage of the electorate (I believe it is 15%, but am not certain). So you need to get two third party/independent tickets running at 15% or more of the vote, preferably without the Democrats or republicans completly falling apart.

Now, if you want to be technical, the United States has already had at least two real four party elections (or four person) elections: 1872 and 1824. Neither is really quite what the scenario seems to envision, however. 1824 saw Clay, Crawford, and Adams all basically camiagning to stop Andrew Jackson, and as a result forced the election to go to the House of Representatives (adams won). 1872 was really an abberation. Grant never faced a serious challenge, and his opponent, Horace Greeley, died before the Electoral college could meet. So, in addition to Grant and Greeley (who still got electoral votes), four different people recieved electoral votes from Greeley supporters.

But I dont think that, especially in the modern day, four party presidential elections are viable without the electoral college being removed. Other parties would be reduced to occasional moments of glory (Perot '92), or being a spoiler (Nader '00, what Barr was expected to do in '08), and occasionally pushing the election to the House. Now, if you had alternative parties holding any strength in Congress, this might become possible, as they become the balance of power, but this would be difficult to maintain.
 
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