Third party

Can anyone think of a public figure who could honestly start a 3rd party.

[xniNja]

? Do you mean start a new party? There are already 3rd 4th...etc. parties.

The answer is no, unless Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise get married, Tom Cruise gets the sexiest man of the year award, wins an Oscar, Katie Holmes wins anything, and they jointly form the Scientology Party with public approval and support.

nice... I do mean a viable party... one that can raise the capital to honestly competel

[Broken Glass Can]

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Can anyone think of a public figure who could honestly start a 3rd party.

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No. Anyone good enough to start his own viable party, would be good enough to win by going through one of the two major parties.

In the past 50 years all major third party/independent candidates were not up to snuff to win the normal way:

Perot
Anderson
Wallace, George
Byrd
Thurmond
Wallace, Henry

If any of these guys could have won a major party nomination, they would have done it. But they were just not acceptable enough to the American people for that, and there are none out there today who fit that bill either.

This is why it makes sense to just ignore third parties (maybe pick up a good idea from one occasionally), and why I think the libertarians on this board, for example, are spinning their wheels on a road to nowhere.

[elwoodblues]

The problem is that if you get to big of an individual name it looks like the party is just a launching pad for the individual, not a living/breathing/thriving organization.

[BCPVP]

I'm not sure I understand the question. Anyone can start their own party. If you mean is there someone popular enough that they could win on a third party ticket, I'd say no. The two party system has become too entrenched in American society. Any candidate would split whichever party it more closely aligned with and the other party would win (see Ross Perot).