RFK Jr. drops Democratic presidential bid, re-enters 2024 race as independent

He does have some celebrity support.

Eric Clapton Raises $2M for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Campaign – The Hollywood Reporter

 

Like Trump says "I am your retribution," RFK Jr. should say, "I am your anti-Biden vaccination."

 

Makes sense since Clapton is an anti vaxer. Still love his music tho.

 

First, all individuals seeking office essentially seek power. There has always been an individual aspect of holding the position that goes beyond just party and its members. Secondly, a third party candidate could represent positions held by both parties, with the idea being a more centrist stance, delivered by a true leader who can bring reasonable people together, could appeal to people, as opposed to the far-left/far-right nonsense we are dealing with currently.

 

As long as the electoral college exists this is strictly a philosophical exercise.

 

Nobody can decide what "centrism" is because the spectrum is more than 1 dimension. In fact, I'd argue that two people could both claim to be "centrists" and have at least the same amount of political differences compared to hardcore partisans.

 

Of course people running for office are seeking power. They generally run as members of a party with a certain platform they share and support. An individual running for office independently is basically just that, an individual, you are voting for a personality, building a movement around that personality is essentially building a cult of sorts. Of course plenty of people run for parties gain support because of personality, but at least in theory, they are a member of a party, not THE party.

The practical reasons for voting a third party is that if they gain a certain threshold of support they get public financing, access to debates, ballot access for future elections, etc. There is none of that gained by supporting an independent candidate. Its basically win or go home, you aren't really building anything.

 

I think even talking that off the table, first past the post voting makes it largely philosophical. Instant run-off voting would help, a parliamentary system would help even more. Only the first can happen without a change in government.

 

In a recent poll, Biden actually does better in a 3-way election with Kennedy as a third-party/independent candidate than in a one on one against Trump.
Home of the Marist Poll | Polls, Analysis, Learning, and More

• In a three-way contest with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running as an independent, Biden opens up a 7-point lead over Trump. 44% of registered voters support Biden. 37% back Trump, and 16% are for Kennedy.
  
  
• Kennedy’s presence in the contest makes the race competitive among independents who break 34% for Trump, 33% for Biden, and 29% for Kennedy.
  
  
• With Kennedy in the race, Biden’s support dips 5 percentage points among Democrats while Trump loses 10 points among Republicans.
  

 

Serves them right for promoting this moron.

 

RFK, Jr.'s candidacy presents a real dilemma for the right-wing media. They've been promoting him for months now raising the question what are the going to do when Trump inevitably starts attacking him with a vengeance? Are they going to follow their Dear Leader or will continue to promote his candidacy? My guess is that it will be the former (Hannity has already done so although he wasn't a supporter of Kennedy in the first place) and it should be interesting to see how they reconcile their conflicting opinions.

 

None of those three are worth a damn in my opinion. And it's a shame they could be the candidates we have to choose from.

 

Marist is an A rated poll by 538, too ... nice...

 

I saw an article a while back that his main funding is coming from the conservative "Amercan Values" superPAC ... tell you all you need to know about how much of a democrat Kennedy is.

 

The reason that they have been supporting him (I used the past tense because I think that's going to change) is because they assumed, apparently incorrectly, that his candidacy would draw votes away from Biden either as an independent or Democratic primary opponent to Biden. With the exceptions of his anti-vax fanaticism and his opposition to aid to Ukraine he is probably to the left of Biden on most issues. At this point there is no way that they would support him in a general election if Trump is the Republican nominee.

 

Do you still believe he will pull more Dem votes than Rep votes? There's a reason that Trump asked for his endorsement

 

He was pulling about 2% more from Biden than Trump, but based on recent polls, looks to be pulling about 2% more from Trump than Harris… this is based on polls that ask both scenarios.

I looked very closely at a recent break down, and a lot of the black vote that left Biden went to Kennedy and West, not Trump. It was like 50% Biden, 25% Kennedy, 25% West…. Now it’s 90% Harris… that’s one of the biggest changes helping democrats.

 

At this point why would a traditionally voting democrat vote for RFKJr?