So if the republicans do an end around and run a third party candidate.

[Egnever]

To "save the party"

What happens if trump beats that candidate but still loses the presidency?

Will they have "saved the party' ? or will it have weakened it even further?

[BillZBubb]

1. That's not going to happen. They are going to rally around trump.

They'll say the magic words "support trump or you get president Hillary." They'll fall in line. They may not like trump but they hate Hillary.

[Egnever]

2. I am not so sure of that

Top conservatives gather to plot third-party run against Trump

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/top-conservatives-gather-to-plot-third-party-run-against-trump-220786

Three influential leaders of the conservative movement have summoned other top conservatives for a closed-door meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., to talk about how to stop Donald Trump and, should he become the Republican nominee, how to run a third-party “true conservative” challenger in the fall.
The organizers of the meeting include Bill Wichterman, who was President George W. Bush’s liaison to the conservative movement; Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and longtime conservative convener; and Erick Erickson, the outspoken Trump opponent and conservative activist who founded RedState.com.

[davidn3600]

9. They will unite

Trump's opponents already blew $400 million down the drain. How many more millions are they willing to just waste on a useless 3rd party bid?

What you see there in that article are entitled rich brats mad because their chosen candidates got rejected for the first time ever. And they are having a temper tantrum. But they will calm down.

[Lucky Luciano]

11. Not completely crazy.

They may prefer Hillary to Trump - so fuck it - why not try a 3rd party run to beat Hillary? Could be their thinking. Nothing to lose.

[COLGATE4]

8. Yep. Remember what they say about the two political parties:

The Democrats fall in love. The Republicans fall in line. They're already starting to fall in line for Drumpf.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Whatever happens, it will be interesting. n/t

[raging moderate]

4. Oh, please, please, make it happen!

Imagine the dancing outside the White House, by Democrats, on Election Night.

[Agnosticsherbet]

5. The third party candidate is not intended to win. First, they hope to take enough votes

away from Trump so that he looses.

Ideally, a third party candidate could take enough electoral votes so that the election is pushed to the House and Senate.

The House elects the President.
The Senate elects the Vice President.

If Trump loses, they will be able to take their party back. As with McCain and Romney, Trump will be accused of not being Conservative enough.

If they can stop both the Democrat and Republican from being elected, they can put a Republican President in the White House.

[davidn3600]

10. In order for that plan to work, they need to take EVs away from the Democrat

Whoever they want to run as 3rd party isn't going to pull blue states away from the Democrat.

These establishment Republicans are totally fucked no matter what they do. They know it, and that's why they are pissed and frustrated and squirming. They didnt get their Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, or Marco Rubio, and they are very mad.

[Agnosticsherbet]

17. The first goal is to save (in their POV) the Republican Party

from Trump. They won't even admit that Trump is the type of person they have preached is their ideal candidate. He is a "successful businessman" who will be a strong man who can run the country like a business.

The fact that a President and a CEO are so different in their powers and responsibilities as to barely resembled each other. A CEO is much more powerful within an organization than a President in the Federal Government.

The second goal I heard discussed on MSNBC with a Republican operative. That is more of a fantasy than a real goal, I think. They aren't running Teddy Roosevelt, who ran the most successful third-party candidacy in history, and still only managed to stop Republicans from winning.

[Egnever]

16. Wow!

Hadn't thought about splitting the vote with those results. That is completely scary and not out of the realm of possibility.

[scscholar]

6. Who cares?

They still would have lost.

[Gman]

7. It's all about money

Money has no party loyalty.

[JimDandy]

12. Republicans best chance of an acceptable president to them is to run an Independent.

Neither Trump nor Clinton is acceptable to them.

The reasons for running a third candidate are twofold:

1. The electoral college requirement that the president receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (270) makes it so that if a very strong third candidate is running, then all 3 candidates are likely to not receive 270 votes. In that case, the Republican controlled House of Representatives picks the President. They will pick the Republican-backed third candidate.

2. There is actually a decent chance in this climate that such a candidate could win the electoral votes outright, but only if a MASSIVE GOTV campaign was started immediately (this is where the Koch brothers make their first entrance), because the 3rd candidate will need overwhelming numbers of voters to win under those conditions. They will need to push absentee ballots, early voting and same day registration in every strongly controlled Republican state that currently allows them (Ironic since Repubs have tried to disenfranchise us Dem voters by stifling early voting and same day registration) in order to garner those kind of numbers. In only strongly held Republican controlled states that don't yet have those laws they will need to have the Republican State Legislators quickly enact them. They will need to appeal to Independents who are moderate conservatives to pull this off and that is where the Koch brothers money comes in again--with ads--and they need to be 3/4 negative ads against the other 2 candidates and 1/4 positive re the 3rd candidate.) They will need to get this going before the end of this month to make it work and they will need to convince every Republican they can to withdraw all financial, infrastructure, and physical support from the Republican convention that they can that is not already under contract-ads, businesses, moderate down-ticket candidates, media etc. Bring a dark curtain down on it.

That's the strategy to save their party and get an acceptable candidate in.

[Egnever]

15. That is an interesting rundown.

I hadn't considered the electoral college requirement before.

What an incredible scenario and I think in this particular election with the candidates on both sides having such huge negative aproval numbers, one that is entirely plausible.

What spectacle that would be.

This is going to one interesting election.

Thanks for the input.

[HooptieWagon]

13. Reasoning:

Conservatives can help Hillary beat Trump without actually having to vote for her, by voting for a conservative third party candidate.
Also, by putting a conservative on a third party ballot, they hope to increase what otherwise might be a low turnout, hopefully boosting down ticket votes.

[oldandhappy]

14. 2016 The Year of Manipulation

One for the history books. Who knows what will happen. I'm becoming less interested as it becomes more convoluted. Checking into a retirement visa for Belize.