US/president/election/2012

2011-09
The 2012 US presidential election ultimately came down to extreme pro-corporate Republican Mitt Romney versus incumbent moderate pro-corporate Democrat Barack Obama.

Despite much discussion of 3rd party candidates on social networking sites, and considerable IRL campaigning by Gary Johnson, no 3rd party was able to make significant headway in the polls.

Pages

 * /Jim Turner: an alleged instance of voter fraud

Independent / 3rd Party

 * Bob Hall - candidacy annountement (Vimeo), Facebook
 * One argument to pick: he argues that taxes on corporations are ultimately passed on to individuals; this is bogus. If that were true, then corporate tax cuts would also be passed on to individuals, which is clearly not the case. (On the positive side, this argument at least makes some sense of the "FairTax" idea, even if it is based on an incorrect assumption.)
 * Gary Johnson - libertarian; former Governor of New Mexico (Republican)
 * Jerome White - socialist
 * Jill Stein - Green Party - "Green New Deal"
 * Laurence Kotlikoff - Americans Elect
 * Michealene Risley - Americans Elect
 * Rocky Anderson - interacts on Reddit

Republican

 * Buddy Roemer (campaign, Ning): Lawrence Lessig has referred to him as a rootstriker (if I understand correctly)
 * Jon Huntsman, Jr. (, campaign site)
 * withdrew on 2012-01-15 - NYT
 * believes in evolution and global warming (Twitter)
 * disapproves of Obamacare (campaign site): "[Obama] wasted an entire year pushing through a government health care plan that the American people didn't ask for and businesses can't afford."
 * Huntsman here repeats Obamacare Myths #1 and #5.
 * Mitt Romney
 * Rick Santorum suspended campaign on 2012-04-10

Reference

 * Presidency 2012: list of candidates on the ballot in at least one state
 * Presidency 2012: list of candidates on the ballot in at least one state