Unity08 challenges Dems, GOP online - Idea is for millions of voters to select a bipartisan ticket

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/36/7 | John Wildermuth

[SmithL]

A new political organization wants millions of online voters to pick a bipartisan ticket to challenge the Republican and Democratic candidates in the 2008 presidential election.

Unity08, the brainchild of former GOP consultant Doug Bailey and Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon, onetime aides to President Jimmy Carter, is reaching out to voters discouraged by the partisan gridlock in Washington and offering them a chance to take part in a high-tech experiment organizers hope will change the nation's political landscape.

"We had the notion of combining two thoughts that many people call radical but are really as old as the republic,'' Bailey said in an interview. "We want a unity ticket, and we want a ticket that is chosen directly by the people.''

Candidates interested in the Unity08 nomination must run on a ticket that includes a Republican and a Democrat or an independent and a member of a major party. The party's nominee will be selected at an online convention in June 2008 that Bailey believes will include at least 10 million people who have signed up as delegates.

"Any registered voter will be allowed to be a delegate and vote in our convention,'' said Bailey, who was media director of the 1976 Gerald Ford campaign before founding the Hotline, a popular online subscription source of political news. "You don't even have to leave your party, since we want delegates from everywhere.''

Third-party efforts have a checkered history in American politics. Candidates such as the Progressive Party's Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, George Wallace of the American Independent Party in 1968, independent Ross Perot in 1992 and the Green Party's Ralph Nader in 2000 pulled enough votes to influence the election but never were a serious threat to win.

That could change in 2008, . . .

[neodad]

Good luck with that.

[mkjessup]

I recall all too well the results of Carter and his advisors during the dark days between January 20, 1977 and January 20, 1981.

Thanks but no thanks.

[GQuagmire]

Pessimistic me smells a money making scam

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

The only thing worse than partisanship is bipartisanship. You want them fighting each other so that they keep looking out for your interests, even if only one party is concerned about your interests at any given time. At least you have a chance. When they are agreeing then NO ONE is caring about you. It becomes all about power and control and incoherence. Yes you move "forward" of sorts. But the baby is dead.

Partisanship is what representative government looks like. Imagine a court without a prosecutor and a defense. They just negotiate together and come up with some middle ground. Now imagine that YOU are the one on trial. That's what you get. It may appear peaceful on the surface, but the truth and justice are the biggest losers next to you.

[johniegrad]

Anything that has even a peripheral relationship to Jimmy Peanut is evil. No thanks.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

We all know what Ayn Rand said about the middle.

This is just a ruse folks. Nothing more than a pathetic John Anderson attempt to split the vote for the Dims. Conservatism is a winner, and the GOP candidate should stick to a strong conservative-libertarian message.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Usually when some group complains about partisanship the goal is to browbeat Republicans to rubberstamp whatever the Democrats want.

[kcar]

Good. With any luck the Deaniacs will spin off from the Rat party. BTW, is Ralph Nader running?

[GitmoSailor]

Just what Hillary is looking for to be elected!!!!....A THRID PARTY VOTE!!!!!.............

[Phlap]

A bipartisan ticket? No!! I could see a nonpartisan ticket but I won't.

[wodinoneeye]

Pretty dim. And WHO do they propose the President to be (could they possibly think ....... SATAN !!!!!!) ???

A Dem no doubt (the VP is usually relatively powerless and so they obviously wouldnt want the Dem to have that position....).

Dual Presidents ???? Sorry you could spend several terms just debating the Constitutional problems with that.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Yes exactly.

[since 1854]

In 1864, the Republican Party nominated a bipartisan ticket, with a Democrat for the vice presidency, and thanks to John Wilkes Booth the country got its worst President ever, Andrew Johnson.

[LibLieSlayer]

I'd slide down a 50 foot razor blade and fall into a cool pool of alcohol before I would EVER vote for a damn dim!

LLS

[spikeytx86]

HAGEL/EDWARDS 08'

That will siphon off more liberal votes then nader times 12!

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Unity08 challenges Dems, GOP online - Idea is for millions of voters to select a bipartisan ticket "

Paid for by Hillary Clinton I bet.

Here is a bipartisan ticket. Fred Thompson and Rudy Guiliani.

[goldstategop]

Let me see: I want to vote for a GOP liberal AKA RINO and a Democrat liberal bipartisan ticket? Thanks but no thanks.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[spikeytx86]

Did Johnson leave over a hundred Americans hostage to third world douche bags for over a year? Were interest rates at 22% or inflation at 13%?

[since 1854]

Worse. He blocked for two years after Appomattox the Republican Party's agenda for the post-Civil War South.