“Imagine that you are considering investing in the political marketplace, as candidate, party official or contributor. What party should you invest in? The obvious choice is one of the two majors. Most of the time, one of them is running things and so in a position to provide benefits to its supporters — opportunities to influence policy and legislation, cash, status. There is, however, another option. The more supporters the party in power has, the more thinly the loot will have to be spread; seen from this standpoint, the ideal electoral victory produces a majority of one. Most of the time, one of the major parties is in power and someone who invests in the third party gets little or no return for his time or money. But once in a while …” (03/13/10)