Stories

On the first day of in-person early voting two weeks ago, a staffer friend of mine was marking his ballot and wondering aloud about the plethora of socialist options among the nine presidential candidates on the ballot. Socialist, Socialist Workers, and Party of Socialism and Liberation, not to mention the Peace and Freedom Party and the Green Party.

As one considers the minor arcana of dogma that separates these groups from one another, it’s easy to recall a scene from Monty Python’s Christ parody, “Life of Brian.”

Joe Biden got lucky Wednesday. He made the first of his guaranteed half dozen off-message remarks of the campaign, going over the top with praise and saying, in his effusive, Joe Biden way, Hillary Clinton would have been a better vice president than he would. Nobody (except a couple of PUMA bloggers) noticed, because there was so much other good Silly Season Stuff happening.

Iowa’s two official third parties both qualified their presidential candidates for the state’s ballot on Wednesday. In a coincidence, both parties are running former U.S. House members from Georgia.

Iowa’s largest third parties, the Greens and Libertarians, won a big victory last year when they earned a place on the state’s voter registration forms. But few voters have exercised that option, and few of their candidates will appear on ballots below the presidential level.

The Libertarian Party, which has run nearly full slates for state [...]