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" It&amp;#039;s been a while since we last checked in with Americans Elect, the corporate-friendly &amp;quot;alternative&amp;quot; to the obstreperous partisan politics that so clog our obstreperous two-party political system. (Not for nothing, but the Krugzilla rather put paid to the whole notion of fashionable centrism \u2014 namely, that it&amp;#039;s largely all attitude and self-styling, and not actual policy \u2014 this morning. I, on the other hand, will not rest until he uses &amp;quot;zombie-eyed granny-starver&amp;quot; in a column. C&amp;#039;mon, Paul. Go for the gold!) Of all the centrist harlequins, Americans Elect puts my teeth more grindingly on edge than any of them because it&amp;#039;s attempting to take politics out of the most fundamentally political exercise we have \u2014 namely, our elections. (This is opposed to many of the efforts by Republicans in the several states merely to take voters out of our elections.) If it&amp;#039;s okay with the people luxuriating in the profound legacy of Evan Bayh, and these apparently include PUMA retread faux-royalty and Mark McKinnon, who&amp;#039;s still trying to ooze through democracy&amp;#039;s keyhole after playing an important role in inflicting C-Plus Augustus on the nation, I like my elections with some partisanship in them, thank you. Anyway, it appears that the whole Americans Elect thing is tanking. People are not flocking to the non-partisan banner the way that the folks in the executive suites were hoping they would. (Buddy Roemer&amp;#039;s campaign is failing, which makes me very sad.) Ron Paul seems to be leading the way at this point, although it&amp;#039;s hard to imagine the hedge-funders behind this kabuki bullshit ever allowing crazy Uncle Liberty (!) to become their nominee. (It would be fun, however, to watch the Intertoobz explode with rage if Paul were to be denied the prize.) There is a real tell, however, deeper in the data. Apparently, there&amp;#039;s been some finagling with the nominating process to the benefit of David Walker who, for years, has been the front man for &amp;quot;Pete&amp;quot; Peterson&amp;#039;s tireless quest to throw Social Security into the hands of Peterson&amp;#039;s pals in the financial services industry. Walker and Peterson also are responsible for a great deal of the deficit hysteria that exists among the political elite no matter how the actual economy is doing at the time. This is occasionally described by various shills and charlatans as a &amp;quot;centrist&amp;quot; position. Or, in the case of Paul Ryan, it is described as &amp;quot;bold&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;courageous&amp;quot; \u2014 or, if you prefer, &amp;quot;zombie-eyed granny-starving.&amp;quot; Not only does this expose Americans Elect for the simple fraud that it is, but it is damned encouraging to me to see so many Americans joining me in largely ignoring an organized hissy-fit on the part of hedge-fund thieves, Bush administration moral cripples, frustrated former Hillary bagpeople, and the entire universe of cosseted buffet-grazers who have spent the past three decades prescribing pain for everyone but themselves, while they toast each other around the fire in their gated compound on the shores of...  ...the great lake of Fail. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13593/americans-elect-2012-candidates-7962198/?src=rss>