By Quin Hillyer at Opportunity Lives;
Conservative activists trying to recruit a third major candidate for president are doing so not just because they find Donald Trump repugnant on multiple levels — although they do — but also because they think multi-candidate way is the most achievable way of keeping Hillary Clinton from the Oval Office.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
They — we — believe Trump is not conservative, not an advocate of liberty, not a lover of the Constitution, not ethical, not honest, not wise, not decent and not emotionally or intellectually stable. We want a champion of limited government, of traditional values, of freedom, and of well-tempered military and diplomatic strength, and we want our champion to have deep integrity. Trump fits none of those criteria.
We believe that, sometimes despite their own worst inclinations, the American people deserve a better choice than one between the authoritarian prevaricator, Trump, and the corrupt leftist Hillary Clinton. More than that, though, we believe — through rigorous analysis — that the American people actually will respond to a multi-candidate choice by denying both Trump and Clinton the 270 electoral votes needs to win the presidency outright. If Trump and Clinton are the only two major candidates, though, we believe Clinton will trounce him….
[later in the column]
… Far more important than the raw percentages, though, is the Electoral College map. The reality is that Trump likely would gain popular votes (compared to other, generic Republican presidential candidates) in places where the votes won’t help him reach 270 electors, but loses votes in places that could actually pad the Democrats’ current electoral advantage….
[later]
….
In short, Clinton, even as unpopular as she is, will squash him.
On the other hand, the unique unpopularity of both of them (along with some of Trump’s lesser but still unique political strengths) will allow the accustomed red-state/blue-state electoral map to be scrambled, if a strong third candidate enters the race, in ways that in ordinary years would be unimaginable.
Read the whole thing here, please.
