Left In Missouri

Looks like McCain is going to have a tougher time in Missouri.  Along with the 3 established parties in Missouri, the Constitution Party will have access this November according to a post in the Columbia Tribunes political blog.  If a more liberal party or candidate does not make it on the ballot, there is a possibility that these 2 third parties will siphon enough votes to essentially “Nader” McCain.

To quote Wayne Brekhus quoting Keith Brekhus “There are 4 Greens in Columbia divided into 5 factions.  If this is true, the protest vote might skew right this year, not good for McCain in a battleground state

Just read this CNN article about the race being a statistical dead heat. Last week some polls had Obama up in double digits. What is going on here, in my opinion, is a news media driven by the entertainment side of the 24/7 news business. This new poll made me shake my head and wonder who was really wagging the dog.

In the poll with just McCain and Obama compared together, Obama leads by five points. When you throw in Nader and Barr, it dwindles to 3 points. One reason why I am skeptical of this polled is that Nader polled at 6% and Barr at 3%. Now since the margin of error is close to these third party percentage vote totals, it is more than likely that these third party candidates don’t have this much support In 2004 Nader got 465,650 votes while the Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik received 397,265 votes. I can’t see that changing very much this election cycle. Nader is old news and Barr might spoil Georgia in a close race.

Here in Missouri, the Libertarian Party is the only established third party in the state and a lack of a more liberal third party candidate may have an impact, but most people when they get behind the curtain in the voting booth will usually vote for major party candidates.

BTW, I tried to set up this blog on Wordpress or b2evolution on a host server. But I found out it’s a lot harder than it seems. I’ll stay on Blogger for now.