Is often past success. It sounds as if Team Clinton is attempting to pull another Perot out of their bag of tricks. A loyal member of the Ilk writes:
I just received a robo-poll from “Victory Processing, LLC”, asking whether I might vote for “a successful businessman” in a three-way race between Hillary Clinton, a Republican, and “Fred Strauss”. I thought you would want to know about this call, because it suggests that the Clintons are considering putting up another Ross Perot, so that they can split the Republican vote and win the election. It also suggests that the Clintons are going to try to run a completely issue-free campaign.
The robo-pollster sounded like a pleasant, decently educated, middle-aged white woman. She started with the usual questions — Do I always vote in presidential elections? Do I consider myself to a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Other? Do I consider myself to be a Liberal, Moderate, Conservative, or Other? If the presidential election were held today, would I be inclined to vote for a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Other? Do I think that the people running the country are working for the rich and powerful instead of ordinary people? Do I want an insider “who can get things done,” or an outsider who would bring “new ideas”? There were **no** questions about the economy, or “Is the country on the right track or on the wrong track”, or foreigh policy, or immigration. In fact, **there were no questions about any issues at all.**
Then the poll asked if I had a Favorable, Unfavorable, or Undecided view on each of Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, and Donald Trump. It also asked about head-to-head matchups. If the presidential election were held today, would I vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, or be undecided? Ditto for Clinton vs. Carson, Cruz vs. Clinton, and Clinton vs. Rubio.
Then the poll asked if I would consider voting for an unnamed “successful businessman” in a three-way race. The unnamed candidate “grew a small family business from 2 stores to 600 stores in 30 states, with 40,000 employees.” The poll asked if, regardless of my candidate preferences, whether I thought a third-party candidate could win. Yes, No, Maybe, or Undecided?
Then the poll named the mystery candidate: “Fred Strauss”. The poll repeated the four matchups, this time with Strauss as a third-party option. This time there were 7 options: “Definitely vote for” candidate X, “Probably vote for” candidate X, ditto for Y, ditto for Z, Undecided.
At the end, the poll asked some demographic questions. Age range: 18-35, 36-50, 51-65, over 65? Male or Female? Race: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Other, Refuse to State? There were **no** questions about educational attainment, income, profession, or employment status.
The poll ended by thanking me for my time, and saying that it was paid for by “Victory Processing, LLC”.
I hope this gives you and The Ilk some ideas about how the presidential campaign might unfold.
The other possibility is that Team Clinton is worried that Donald Trump will run as a third-party candidate if the GOP Establishment successfully denies him the nomination despite his popularity.
Which, by the way, he absolutely should do, given the way in which the GOP Establishment is now attacking him. Loyalty is only ever a one-way street for them.