Glenn Beck’s third-party insanity

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Glenn Beck said on Monday that he could support a third-party challenge if Republicans nominate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to run for president against Barack Obama. “If I had a gun to my head, I’ll vote for Mitt Romney,” he explained. “If it’s Newt Gingrich, and there’s a third party, and it’s Ron Paul. … I might consider Ron Paul as a third party.” This position is nuts. Obviously Mr. Beck needs to generate attention for his new GBTV venture since giving up his popular Fox News platform, but promoting ideas that would lead to an Obama second term is reckless and bad for America.

Make no mistake about it, a third-party presence from the right in the 2012 election would bring about conservative defeat and marginalize the movement for years. Recent history shows that splitting up a party leads to ruination for that party and its main constituent components. Billionaire Ross Perot took advantage of discontent with President George H.W. Bush after “41” broke his “no new taxes” pledge and ran under the Reform Party banner in 1992. Mr. Perot’s 18.9 percent of the vote was larger than Bill Clinton’s 5.5 percent margin of victory; and again four years later, the 8.9 percent garnered by the Reform and Libertarian parties was more than what Bob Dole needed to beat Clinton in 1996. Most Perot voters had supported Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and voted for George Bush I in 1988. Even the tiny table scraps perennial Green Party candidate Ralph Nader took cost liberal Al Gore Florida and thus the presidency in 2000.

Thankfully, there are lots of reasons Texas Rep. Ron Paul - a libertarian hero - won’t make the third-party mistake. The most obvious is that he can’t win with the GOP house divided. More to the point, however, is the result of breaking up the elephant herd would be to guarantee four more years of an Obama White House, which would be a disaster for one’s pet policies anywhere on the conservative-libertarian spectrum.

[Valin]

Geee

 

Glenn Beck Ideology Über Alles.

[Jill]

If Glenn Beck was after attention for these remarks, he's got it. I agree with the article, saying it's better to vote for Ron Paul if Newt Gingrich (but not if it was Mitt Romney) was the GOP nominee is crazy. Beck is getting loonier and loonier.

[Argyle58]

Geee

 

Glenn Beck Ideology Über Alles.

 

An ironic reference toward the pro Israeli Beck, but somehow appropriate.