Sam, if Romney should squeak out the nomination through our fire wall primary, I just don’t see how he can first of all, but say he does, can a third party be formed during the general election cycle, or are we stuck with write-in?
If only a general election write-in is possible, we should start a campaign against Romney NOW, by promoting a huge write-in campaign. ???
For those who say a third party candidate cannot win, consider that Perot was leading both Bush and Clinton in the polls that summer despite a lot of very bizarre behavior and having his campaign staff get disillusioned with him. He dropped out of the race later that summer and then on October 1, he got back into it. Despite being discredited and a national laughingstock by that time, he still ended up with nearly 20% of the vote which just goes to show you how disgusted many Americans are with our current two-party system. Thus, I think a credible third party candidate (like a Sarah Palin) has a very good chance of winning a general election as a third party candidate.
That said, and before the flames start coming my way, I am still holding out hope that we will put a real conservative (such as Herman Cain) on the Republican ticket this go-around and that a lot more Tea Party conservatives will enter the House and Senate as well. If that happens, we won't need a third party. We will have transformed the Republican Party from within.