Third Party Candidates - Yea or Nay?

It's coming from both sides - the idea of  a candidate missing out on their initial bid for the nomination and branching out to continue their campaign as an independent candidate. It's not completely unheard of to have someone running other than the Democratic and Republican nominee (Cue Ralph Nader). However, in the case of a Trump or Bernie third-party bid, the result could have the absolute opposite desired effect on either end of the spectrum.

While both Bernie and Hillary have promised to support whichever candidate wins the nomination, independents from all over the country are calling for Bernie to make an independent bid for the White House if he gets beaten out by Hillary (which, of course, would only be because of super delegates because they're unconstitutional and not at all because Bernie is running as a Democrat strictly because it would give him more media coverage and not because he actually shares all of the same beliefs as the Democratic establishment). However, at this point it would appear that Bernie is going to keep his promise. This may or may not be a result of his strong moral desire to do the right thing and keep his word - while that probably plays a part, I think Bernie knows that splitting the vote of the Democratic party would only benefit whatever ends up obtaining the nomination for the Republicans, and even he can agree that that candidate would do far more damage than Hillary could.

And then there's Trump. Ooooh, the Donald, a man of his word (the only catch is said word is subject to change at any given time). Back in the beginning of March, Trump was quite pragmatic about suggestions that the Republican establishment would try to run another candidate if he secured the nomination. "'If they run a third party or an independent party, if they do that, it will make it impossible for the Republican candidate, on the assumption it's me, to win,' Trump said. 'The Democrats would have an absolute free run. Probably you wouldn't even campaign because it would be impossible to win.'" (http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-third-party-consequences-220317)
Seems pretty reasonable, right? In his Trump way, he also added that the Republicans should stop their "foolishness" and get on board with the idea he could be leading the party into the general election. 

Now, fast forward to a week ago. An article from USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/04/03/three-way-presidential-race-late-independent-trump-cruz-republican/82509732/) states that Trump has not given up on the idea of launching his own third party campaign if he does not receive the RNC nomination. Interesting, considering he already stated that doing something like this would do nothing but ensure putting another Democrat in the White House, but that's none of my business.











Sources used:
http://www.votenader.org/about/
http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-third-party-consequences-220317
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/04/03/three-way-presidential-race-late-independent-trump-cruz-republican/82509732/