STATE OF THE NATION – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  This is a terrible political year.  Look at the choices we're being offered?  Is a third choice imperative?  From Greg Orman and Patrick H. Caddell at RealClearPolitics: 

There is a crisis of legitimacy threatening the 2016 election. As the primary process wraps up, it appears that the electorate will be offered the choice between two candidates who have the highest unfavorability ratings in the history of American presidential elections. With the middle class under siege from stagnant wages and rising costs of living, our entitlement programs on an unsustainable path, and systemic corruption infecting our politics, a majority of Americans are shaking their heads in disbelief that these are our only choices.

This crisis of legitimacy isn’t confined to the presidential election. Grassroots Americans are challenging the competence, legitimacy, and performance of its governing elite. Some three-fourths of the American people believe that the government in Washington no longer operates with the consent of the governed. There is no way that the current status quo establishment, which did not even perceive the gathering storm before it arrived, can reform, revive, and restore the country.

And...

Only a new movement, which offers not a singular savior but a candidacy around which the American people can rally, will be able to start the process of healing our country. Only a new movement that empowers Americans from every segment of society to bring a new energy and sensibility to our politics will allow us to chart a course that lifts up every American who is willing to work for the American Dream. It would be more than a single candidate. It would be a ticket of partners and a leadership team driven by a broad movement of grassroots supporters.

And...

Who can make this happen? Those of you who are reading and agree with this essay. Those who could help fund an effort both to secure ballot access and to publicly inform and give exposure for this effort to the millions of Americans who wait in hope. Those who could join the effort to secure the necessary signatures. Those who would be willing to give their time and energy to bringing a campaign for such a candidacy to light. And the final and most important: an American or two who are in a credible position to step forward -- as a candidate or a ticket -- in service to the cause of America.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  The piece is well argued.  But, at the end, we're still left with the reality of a presidential election in five months.  And we're left without a candidate.  Without that name, all the talk of a third party is meaningless.  It's the old story:  You can't beat somebody with nobody.

I agree that we have terrible choices.  And we have no Eisenhower to step in, as he did in 1952.  And there is no Reagan, as in 1980.

If you know anybody, write to me.

June 5, 2016