Brendan Nyhan

Thomas Friedman's third party nonsense

The dream of the independent third party presidential candidate shall never die -- at least in the columns of elite pundits like Thomas Friedman. In his latest effort, Friedman predicts "a serious third party candidate" for the presidenc...

Why third-party candidates don't win: Mickey Kaus rebuttal edition

Slate's Mickey Kaus didn't like my post criticizing his claim that John McCain can win the presidency as a third-party candidate: Backfill: Ron Brownstein's made the McCain/Perot point before. I've blogged Brownstein before. And Brenda...

Unlikely Huckabee third-party speculation

With John McCain's lock on the GOP nomination deflating elite interest in Michael Bloomberg, pundits have to look elsewhere to engage in pointless speculation about third-party presidential candidacies. Bizarrely, Robert Wright suggested...

Unity '08: 2008 is like 1860

TNR's Britt Peterson presents the right take on Unity '08 -- a third-party presidential candidate has no chance: Of course, Unity '08's coherence problem may be the least of their hurdles. As John Anderson, Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader c...

A prcis on the Duke lacrosse evidence

Stuart Taylor, the National Journal legal columnist, and K.C. Johnson, the Brooklyn College professor and respected Duke lacrosse blogger, have published a devastating Wall Street Journal op-ed today on the case. It's all worth reading, ...

Bloomberg: No constituency, no rationale

The Washington Post and New York Times report on the group of old, increasingly irrelevant moderates who seem to want to draft Michael Bloomberg for a "national unity" government. There's a serious problem, however. Neither Bloomberg nor...

Duke lacrosse roundup from Herald Sun

Durham's Herald Sun newspaper includes a few new tidbits in today's article on the Duke lacrosse case. First, the New Black Panther Party is getting involved: An official with the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense said the black...

Will the media notice that Bush isn't very popular?

As private accounts continue to flatline, a few people are starting to notice that President Bush isn't very popular, as I pointed out last week. Ironically enough, it was the Washington Times that led the charge: President Bush's reco...

Ron Paul: The elephant in the room

I'm usually a hater when it comes to people floating third-party scenarios, but why isn't anyone talking about a Ron Paul third-party run? What is he going to do with all that money? He can't possibly spend it all on his lame ads, can he?