StelagMonk

Honestly, in terms of what would look awesome in balloon form, Nyan Cat is fairly high on my list.

I'll do you one better.

Quite frankly, I'd like to see a balloon sculpture of a man making a balloon sculpture. Perhaps that sculpture could also be a balloon man.

Ever see the movie Milk? A politician needs to establish himself in an area and take the losses as they come, knowing that they'll get more and more recognition as more elections happen. Most folks can't just Obama their way to the top.

But I do agree that if FiveThirtyEight is against you, you've basically already lost.

Dear Dr. Stein,

I am a Green Party member and plan on voting for you (nothing's set in stone, of course). However, I have a philosophy on how to get a rise of a third party in the United States and wanted your opinion on it.

As you are likely aware, the FEC provides $20 million in funding to a political party if their candidate receives at least 5% of the national vote. This would allow the party to gain firm footing going forward. I think it can also be assumed that, given the way the media and electoral system is set up, this is not the year where a 3rd party candidate is going to gain enough momentum to get elected as president.

Obama is very similar to Romney, but is different enough that the country would likelier be better off with him as president compared to Mitt. Would it not be in the best interests of the country to lobby for non-swing-state voters to vote for yourself while yielding swing state votes to Obama? For example, it is fairly clear that California and Connecticut are not going to elect Mitt Romney as their president. Those would be excellent states to skim Green voters off the top from to help gain that 5%.

I know that your mission is to get as many votes as possible for yourself and other Greens so that you may change our policies for the better, but could you comment on the long-term direction of the party, given how entrenched we are in a two-party system?

Thanks and best of luck!