Seriously, third parties are only good for canabalizing the voters on the same side of the political spectrum, and thus are counterproductive to their own interests. Case in point Ross Perot and Ralph Nader - both helped the other side of the political spectrum win.
I would guess that third parties tend to be more pronounced when the two major parties are not meeting the expectations of their core constituents.
Perot came on to challenge Bush 1 after his first term in office and after 12 years of Republicans in the White House. George Bush 1 was a moderate who turned conservative to appease Reagan but apparently the conservatives weren't inspired by what they saw.
Nader came on to challenge Gore, after 8 years of Clinton in the White House, and the liberals again apparently were not inspired by what they saw.
Now George Bush 2 is in the White House running for a second term, and this year there are no real third party ramblings, though Nader may still come out if he can get enough money to do so. With George Bush running as a taxcutting, free spending moderate who is tough on security, and assuming he stays the course, I wonder if the pump will be primed in 2008 for a third party challenge to the Republicans and thus a Democratic victory in 2008? The interesting thing is that in 2008, the Democrats will have both Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, yet the Republicans seem to lack an obvious leading contender.
Which again points me to the conclusion that Bush should annoint someone for VP the 2nd time around who he wants to run for President in 2008. My personal choice would be Gingrich, who might even be able to reign in all the free-spending on Capital Hill.
