"Unity08": Political vets work for bipartisan 2008 ticket w/ online vote

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: From the Internet to the White House
Political Veterans Work to Organize Bipartisan 2008 Ticket With Online Balloting
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 31, 2006; Page A04

A group of old Washington hands has launched a campaign to remake Internet politics, taking a forum that until now has been associated with ideologues and angry partisans and using it to start a movement culminating in a bipartisan presidential ticket in 2008.

The group is called Unity08, and no one would accuse its founders of thinking small. They include Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon, who gained political fame for their role in electing Jimmy Carter 30 years ago, as well as Doug Bailey, a media adviser to former president and representative Gerald R. Ford (R-Mich.). They are being joined by former Maine governor Angus King, an independent.

Their goal is to offer an alternative to the two major party choices -- a unity ticket that will emerge after secure, online balloting that they hope will include millions of Americans. In an announcement statement, Unity08 said its efforts are a reaction to a system that has "polarized and alienated the American people" through partisanship and interest-group politics.

Unity08's organizers estimate that if 20 percent of the voting public signs on -- hardly a modest goal but only slightly more than what independent H. Ross Perot won in his dramatic 1992 presidential campaign -- then "our voters will decide the 2008 elections."

This is different from Perot and his budget charts. Unity08's founders said they do not want to create a third party but, rather, force Democrats and Republicans to revamp themselves by becoming more issue-focused, responsive and candid. These are the same traits millions of Americans say they clamor for each election but never seem to find. "What we are trying to do is to create a forum for people who are in the middle who have been left out of politics," Bailey said....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/30/AR2006053001139.html

[BillZBubb]

1. I hope these clowns fall flat on their faces.

Just what we need, another bunch of "Nader" idiots in 2008 to let another right wing fanatic get in.

[skipos]

2. I hope they sap votes from the repubs and not dems.

We don't need another Nader 2000.