What if Dr. Stein is the surprise of election day?
We have largely forgotten Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. She is at 2.0% in the latest RCP 4-way average.
Let me go out on a limb and say Dr. Stein may be the quiet spoiler. I feel this way for two reasons:
1) Dr. Stein is still talking and attacking Mrs. Clinton. She held nothing back over the weekend:
“Get ready for war with Russia” if Hillary Clinton is elected president, said progressive Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein.
“This election, we are not only deciding what kind of world we will have, but whether we will have a world or not going forward,” Stein warned, explaining that Clinton’s trigger-happy militarism “is a mushroom cloud waiting to happen.”While Stein adamantly opposes a Trump presidency, she explained that the dangers posed by a Clinton presidency are “arguably even more immediate and intense.”
Stein blasted Clinton’s “warmongering” that “almost singlehandedly” brought us the turmoil in Libya and could lead us into a nuclear war if Clinton were elected president.
2) There are many Sanders supporters still angry with Mrs. Clinton. We saw it at a Clinton rally a few days ago:
Kaleb Vanfosson was scheduled to introduce Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, but things didn’t go as planned for the campaign.
Vanfosson, president of the Iowa State chapter of Students for Bernie, ended up being escorted off stage after he slammed Clinton as someone who only “cares about is pleasing her donors, the billionaires who fund her election.”
The remarks came as Vanfosson was supposed to be introducing Sanders. While talking about student loan debt and attacking Republican Donald Trump for failing to talk about the issue, Vanfosson said, “But unfortunately, Hillary doesn’t care either. The only thing she cares about is pleasing her donors, the billionaires who fund her campaign.”
My sense is that there are a lot of Sanders supporters who won't vote for Mrs. Clinton but will vote anyway. In fact, I had a chat with a young man on Saturday about this. He voted for Sanders and cannot accept Clinton. I asked him if he'd vote for Dr. Stein, and he said maybe.
We have not paid attention to Dr. Stein, the other woman in this race. I would not be shocked if she takes the votes that open the door for Mr. Trump to compete in blue states.
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