Jill Stein, Green Party presidential nominee, could perpetuate Democrats' third-term jinx

People in India will be just as familiar with the name of Jill Stein as they are with the rules of American football. That’s fine since even most Americans are likely to be as clued into her political career as they are into the finer points of cricket.Jill Stein is a physician from the state of Massachusetts and she is also the Green Party’s nominee to contest the US Presidential elections this November, her second bid for that office. She also owns the record for a female candidate contending for that post to have secured the most votes ever – she got a little less than half a million in 2012. She may only have another three months to lay claim to that achievement, but she could also prove a real thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s nominee, who will snatch that record soon enough.[caption id="attachment_2922224" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Reuters[/caption]No, Stein will not score an upset of epic proportions in November. But she could help perpetuate the Democrats’ jinx of not getting three consecutive terms in the White House in the previous 60 years. In fact, the last time they came closest was in 2000, when those infamous hanging chads in Florida doomed Bill Clinton’s Vice-President Al Gore’s attempt to get that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue address on his letterhead. Republican George W Bush carried that decisive state by just over 500 votes. Playing Gore’s spoiler was the Green Party candidate that year, Ralph Nader, who logged nearly 100,000 votes in Florida.As the Democratic National Convention concluded in Philadelphia on Thursday night, that Green Party threat may bedevil Clinton. Since Monday, Stein camped in the city, holding parallel rallies. And she received a receptive audience in the supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who lost in the primary race to Clinton. Sanders may have endorsed Clinton, but a vast number of his leftist loyalists have pivoted to the 'Never Hillary' camp. Their indignation with the Democrats’ nominee is real, and the Wikileaks data dump of the party machinery coordinating with the Clinton campaign to defeat Sanders has broadened the chasm. And making it even more unbridgeable is Clinton’s choice of centrist Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate. The party’s left has a sense of being orphaned and Stein is attempting to offer them shelter.Stein stormed through Philly chanting the mantra, 'Jill, not Hill'. She tweeted to the hashtag #DemExit: “Anyone will tell you: in a relationship based on lies, cheating & bullying, the smart thing to do is walk out.”

Republican Donald Trump hasn’t been her target, mentioned only in passing to equate him to Clinton. Stein’s message is concise and emblazoned on her Twitter page: “Time to reject the lesser evil for the greater good.”Meanwhile, beyond the glitz and gushing oration from the podium at Hillary’s coronation, was the anger among Sanders’ delegates. Former Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, summoned to talk up Hillary’s national security credentials, was booed so often that he could barely complete a sentence without interruption. Sanders’ folk similarly catcalled each mention of Clinton’s name, and held up protest signs as Kaine spoke. The DNC smartly kept that away from TV cameras, darkening the area of the venue the naysayers occupied. But the determined protesters used smartphone flashlights to illuminate their signs and throw light upon their disgust with the DNC and distrust of Clinton. Even as Hillary gave her prolonged acceptance speech, there was opposition within the Wells Fargo Arena: Some waved Jill Stein signs, others wore neon yellow T-shirts with the legend #DNCLeaks, and several jeered during her speech, often drowned out by counter cheers of “Hillary”.These are the troubled waters upon which Stein has cast her net hoping that those seeing red at the Democrat blue will go Green. In a country where a state could be won or lost by the swing of a percentage, just how much trawling for the Sanders’ base and trolling of Hillary will succeed could prove crucial.Given that the heaviest hitters in the party hierarchy, from President Barack Obama to her husband and former President Bill Clinton, have talked her up, Hillary should emerge from Philly with what is known as the Convention bump, or a lead in the polls over Trump. But as the campaigns kick off in earnest, there will be the question of how sustainable those gains will be.As Stein attempts to get on the ballot in every state, Hillary may face the disquieting prospect not of making history this November, but of reliving it in the form of the decades-old third-term jinx.