STATE OF THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES FOR THE 2024 PRESIDENCY?

The USA has had 46 presidents.  Presidents Day was first established in 1879 as Washington's Birthday.  

• Back then there were only three other federal bank holidays:  Christmas, New Year's, Independence.

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  So February 22 was added as the fourth.
• George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, 292 years ago.  
• Well, not quite, for we were then on the Julian calendar, and he came on February 11.  
• The Gregorian calendar--to more accurately mark the solar year--was adopted in 1752, adding 11 days.
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  I looked back to 2022 and all the way up to 2034, and none of these Mondays were and will be on February 22.  
• With all that history, the federal government still calls this day Washington's Birthday.

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  Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968, which officially took effect in 1971, shifting the fixed date of February 22 to the third Monday of February.  
• Lincoln's Birthday had been celebrated by some states on February 12, so they just combined the two presidents to be honored, with all the other presidents, on the third Monday of February,
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  Note the title of this act.  Two other holidays were also moved to Monday, Memorial and Veterans (except this one was moved back to November 11 in 1978).  Plus they added Columbus Day as a Monday holiday.  Why?  To create three-day weekends, pushed by the travel industry.

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  Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday was first observed in 1986 on the third Monday in January.
• The latest was Juneteenth in 2021, always on June 19.
• We are now up to 11 federal holidays, 5 on Mondays, but in 2024, there will be 7 Monday holidays because January 1 fell on a Monday, and so will Veterans Day.

About the topic of the day, at least two recent third party candidates probably reversed the outcome of presidential elections:

• In 1992, Ross Perot garnered 19% of the votes, to Bill Clinton's 43% and George the Elder Bush's 37%.  It's debatable about the true effect, but Perot was more a Republican than Democrat.

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  In 2000, Ralph Nader was why George the Younger Bush became president over Al Gore.  
• Nader purposefully ran to hurt the Democratic Party.
• It's the marginal states that determine who becomes president.
• In Florida, Bush beat Gore by 537 votes.  Nader got 97,000 votes in  Florida.

I've had too much of Trump the past week.  So much so that I must mention one more misogynist victim, Liz Cheney, who was on CNN's State of the Union yesterday.  She  ended the show by saying she has not made a decision on whether she will make a third-party run for president, but did say she would do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO DEFEAT TRUMP!    Sounds awfully threatening to me.

Is there a deadline for third party candidates?  Essentially, no, but states have filing deadlines that are soon for some states:  North Carolina (March 5), Utah (March 5), Idaho (March 15) and Texas (May 13).  All other states have at least a hundred days left, with four states still okay for 200 days, September 6, my birthday.  There are other requirements, such as a list of signatures needed to run, registration fee, or both.

Cheney can meet much of the above, and should have no problems finding donors, such as Nikki Haley succeeding with the Koch brothers, who are strongly anti-Trump.  Cheney would not be in it to win.  Her only motivation is revenge.  Wikipedia covers this option.

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  Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Cornell West and the usual candidates from the Libertarian Party, Green Party, Legal Marijuana Now Party, etc.
• Most of those only have noise value.
• But RFK Jr could sway the election.  Although he formerly was a Democrat, there is no true sense of who he would hurt more, Trump or Biden.  Oh, did I mention that he is an idiot?  Read this New York magazine.  He can still be dangerous.  But to who?
• 
  No Labels includes Chris Christie, Liz Cheney and Chris Sununu on a wish list.
• Duane Rock Johnson declined and endorsed Biden.
• Joe Manchin would definitely help Trump.  And this is why he this past week decided not to run.

Thus, it looks more and more that, if Cheney makes a move, she will definitely destroy any chance of Trump beating Biden.

I'll end with BAFTA, standing for the British Academy Film Awards.  Pretty confirmed what will happen at the 96th U.S. Academy Awards, known as Oscars, coming up on March 10.

• Oppenheimer walked away with five BAFTAs
• Looks like the film, director Christopher Nolan and actor Cillian Murphy are locks for the Oscar.
• Also for musical score and best supporting actor Robert Downey Jr.

Well, one more, for there were 45 People's Choice Awards last night, moderated by Simu Liu.

• Fans voted online.
• Barbie won the top movie prize.
• Grey's Anatomy was voted the TV show of the year.
• Other big winners were Ice Spice, Beyoncé and Jennifer Aniston.
• Travis Kelce was named the Athlete of the Year.
• Taylor Swift won both the Social Celebrity and Female Music Artist Awards.

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