For years many Americans have bemoaned the fact there is not a viable third party in this country. Ralph Nader capitalized this angst against a two-party system dominated democrats and republicans in 2000 to run what many have called the most successful third party campaign thus far. Nader's Green Party is still seen as an insurgent group still struggling to find its sea legs in America's political waters. Surprisingly, a new American political party has done within the course of three months what the Green Party could not manage to do in eight years: which is develop a well oiled political machine capable of winning a presidential election.
Who's this new third party? Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton's victories last night in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas were miraculous not because she had been knocked down and got back up as she suggested in her Ohio victory speech, but rather in the fact that she was even competing in these three states. After losing eleven straight contests and being faced by a virtually insurmountable deficit in delegates any other candidate would have been pressured by party leaders to concede the election. Instead, Clinton loaned her campaign five million dollars, borrowed her opponent's organizational strategy and his "We Believe" ethos, and then cruised to victories in three out of four primary contests.
Clinton's resiliency was made possible by the fact that she and her husband are the two most powerful people in the democratic party--and as many people fear--treat the democratic party as their own personal fiefdom. That assessment was logical prior to last night, but as the dust settles and people begin realizing that in spite of her victories she was no closer to winning the democratic nomination than she was when the evening started, it becomes clearer that the Clintons are no longer competing for the democratic nomination, and likely never were. The Clintons were merely lending their names to the democratic party, giving it a viable candidate in an election year prior to Obama's emergence they thought that they would not have one. Bill and Hillary Clinton knew that they had the resources to win this election without the Democratic Party's support--but were kind enough to not turn their backs on the party that gave them their start.
Think of it this way, if this were a three party election with John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the candidates of their respective parties, and each state was winner take all, then Clinton would have bested her counterparts in Ohio, Texas, New York, California. Throw in her victories in New Hampshire, Nevada, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and disputed victories in either Florida and Michigan and we would be a few months away from crowning this country's first third party president.
When all the primary votes are counted there is a slight chance--but a legitimate argument that the person who won the popular vote is not one of the two candidates running for president. Ironically, Clinton recently chastised Ralph Nader for spoiling Al Gore's 2000 bid. But if she goes on to lose the democratic nomination, Clinton may deem herself prey to the very system that Nader is continually challenging.