I think the debt ceiling deal is such a fast-moving target that anything I write about it now will have the shelf life of milk in the sun, so I'm following through on my promise to examine No Labels' effort to gain ballot access in next year's elections. I begin with Stephanie Ruhle and her guests on MSNBC's "The 11th Hour" discussing Independent group 'No Labels' could field third-party candidate in 2024.
The centrist group “No Labels” is ramping up efforts to put a third party candidate on the ballot in 2024, but Democrats say this could help Donald Trump.I'm glad I waited until MSNBC uploaded this segment, as it gave someone associated with No Labels a chance to respond. I personally think Mark McKinnon is giving the most charitable explanation — "break glass in case of emergency," meaning to prevent a second Trump presidency if Biden is too ill to serve. If that actually ends up happening next summer before the Democratic Party convention, then the scenario I described in Marianne Williamson and Nikki Haley, two women running for President on International Women's Day might come to pass.
[I]f Biden actually becomes vulnerable to a primary challenge, he would attract someone like Gavin Newsom to enter the contest. That would be a mistake if TFG is the Republican nominee again, but maybe not if DeSantis is. I think Newsom and DeSantis match up better than either Newsom and Trump or Biden and DeSantis. Still, I don't think Biden will fail be be renominated if he actually runs. Party discipline is not only much stronger in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party, it's stronger than it was when i joined in 2004. As I wrote in 'SNL' shares scary news for Halloween 2022, "Re-nominating Joe Biden might be scary, but all the other potential candidates mentioned were even scarier, so back to Biden we go. I'm OK with that."No Labels really doesn't need to do this, as the Democratic Party can take care of the problem itself, whether through new candidates entering the contest or the delegates nominating Kamala Harris instead. That would be a scenario right out of "Veep." Life imitating art!
CNN also examined this subject, which Third Way posted on its YouTube channel as CNN: Dems warn No Labels third-party ticket could split vote.
Third Way Senior Visiting Fellow Tim Ryan joins Michael Smerconish on CNN to explain why a No Labels third-party bid for the White House would re-elect Donald Trump.That's an even more dire warning about what a No Labels candidate could do next year.
I stumbled across this subject by following up on Kyrsten Sinema becoming an independent. No Labels loves her and this effort helps her, too. No Labels will have ballot access in Arizona next year, including for U.S. Senate. Sinema now has a guaranteed spot waiting for her. Nice work, No Labels.
This concludes May 2023's blogging. Stay tuned for June, when I plan on writing about the debt ceiling tomorrow, after the House of Representatives votes on the measure. That should be interesting.
In a case like this, it's best to start the story at the beginning. From what we know about No Labels's donors, they're mostly billionaires who normally support Republicans. That fact should be front and center, as it's the key to the whole story. As the guy in the first video points out, No Labels has historically been pro-Trump and anti-Biden. They're not neutral or centrist.
ReplyDeleteSo start at the beginning. This cabal of billionaires desperately wants to stop Biden from being re-elected and get a Republican in, whether it's Trump or somebody else. The Republican party is self-sabotaging with the abortion issue, to the extent that the usual strategy of donating lots of money to them is unlikely to work to get Biden out. So they know they need another plan. The obvious one is to replicate the Nader/Stein effect from 2000 and 2016, but this time as a deliberate strategy. So they start pouring money into No Labels.
It's simply a mistake to view No Labels as anything other than a Republican scam to get Biden out by bleeding off Democratic votes. That's not the way they're promoting themselves, but that's the reality.
If I really wanted to start at the beginning, I'd go back to 2010, when No Labels began. Driftglass called it a grift for Washington establishment types and ex-Republicans from the get go and has an entire podcast episode about them.
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