With the announcement last week that it was “standing down,” the No Labels group brought an end to arguably the most significant – and certainly the best-funded – third party effort in American presidential politics in the last 30 years.
There is already an abundance of explanations behind the group’s demise. Some would have us think that the No Labels group was simply unprepared, lacking the foundations for a basic campaign, such as a voter database and a legal team. Others suggested that Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) decision to leave Washington, and former Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R-Md.) decision to try to get to Washington, albeit via the Senate, deprived No Labels of the “big name” it was looking for to carry the flag. The untimely death of founding member, former Sen. Joe Liberman (D-Conn.) was also a gut punch, depriving the group of one of its most endearing surrogates. One can imagine that true cynics might suggest the effort was less about politics than it was about money anyway: The group did spend literally tens of millions of dollars on pollsters and consultants.
For its part, No Labels was quick to remind everyone that it had always said, from the very beginning, that it would not pursue the effort if they did not see a “pathway to........