Joe Manchin, Jon Huntsman & No Labels: No Solutions

Two–thirds of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction (it’s nearly three-fourths in some polls). In the RealClearPolitics polling averages, fewer than 40 percent of Americans view Joe Biden favorably, and the same is true of Donald Trump. Americans look forward to the prospect of a Trump–Biden rematch about as much as they look forward to being trapped in a sleeping bag with a rabid gorilla.

American politics produces few moments so richly inviting for a third party. And for months, No Labels has teased that it will rise to this historic opportunity. Then came Monday, July 17, and the first No Labels town hall in New Hampshire. To call it “underwhelming” would be to suggest, incorrectly, that it whelmed at all, unless one means the less used but first definition of “whelm”: to “cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect.”

AC

About the Author

Andrew Cline

Andrew Cline is the president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, New Hampshire’s free-market think tank.

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Two–thirds of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction (it’s nearly three-fourths in some polls). In the RealClearPolitics polling averages, fewer than 40 percent of Americans view Joe Biden favorably, and the same is true of Donald Trump. Americans look forward to the prospect of a Trump–Biden rematch about as much as they look forward to being trapped in a sleeping bag with a rabid gorilla.

American politics produces few moments so richly inviting for a third party. And for months, No Labels has teased that it will rise to this historic opportunity. Then came Monday, July 17, and the first No Labels town hall in New Hampshire. To call it “underwhelming” would be to suggest, incorrectly, that it whelmed at all, unless one means the less used but first definition of “whelm”: to “cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect.”