Watch the Right Flank

Political Wire links to a CBS story on the possibility of a Libertarian candidacy affecting November's outcome.

I've been quietly hoping for some time that Bush would face a challenge from his right. I had begun to lose hope. Certainly, he will face no organized opposition from within his party (the fratricide of my previous post notwithstanding). But I think Libertarian opposition to Bush is just as good. Maybe even better.

A Libertarian challenge would serve the dual purpose of weakening Bush and strengthening the third-party movement within the country. Though I'm not sure the third-party movement would develop in quite the way Bob Novack envisions:

I just had breakfast with a guy and we discussed that people are already talking, as politicians do, about the what-ifs,” said Novak. “Everybody believes if Bush loses, the Republican Party will move to the left in ’08, to the Schwarzenegger and Giuliani strain, and that is where you really get the possibility of a serious third-party movement.

It seems to me that the neo-cons and the radical social conservatives (I've heard them described as "theo-cons") have too much of a stranglehold on the GOP for the party to make a noticeable move to the left. But hey, whatever it takes to break the links between the Old Establishment GOP (McCain, Chafee, Lugar, Snowe, etc.) and the Modern Radical Right.

I think that when the issue of presidential debates comes up this fall, Kerry should support the inclusion of both Nader and the Libertarian candidate on the dais. The Libertarian candidate is likely to peel away from Bush much more support than Nader is likely to pull from Kerry. Alas, given the stranglehold that "Republicrats" have on the political process, it's highly unlikely that either of two parties will allow their power to be dissipated by including either of the third party candidates. If it happens, it will happen over the fierce objections of both the RNC and the DNC.