If you’re interested in politics, as I have been since I was in junior high school more than 40 years ago, it helps a lot to be a lifetime learner. Because no matter how much you already know or think, you know, the political world is full of surprises and always has another lesson to teach, like this one. When support for your opponent goes down, it doesn’t automatically follow that support for you goes up, no matter how desperate are the media and both political parties to push this idea that Americans have a simple binary choice between arsenic and cyanide between a Republican and a Democrat. A lot of voters can’t seem to get that idea through their heads. I’m glad to see it. In fact, the other day I smiled when I saw a bumper sticker on a car that read Kenny 24 Declare your independence. Support for third party bids like the one being waged by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is going up not down. In a recent poll by the New York Times Siena College and the University of Pennsylvania that looked at six critical battleground states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia. Kenny got 10% of the vote. The poll also showed him getting 80% of the vote among voters under the age of 30 and 14% of the vote from Latinos. For Kennedy, Latinos are in fact the X Factor. They are a major presence in Arizona and Nevada, where Latinos make up 32% and 90% of the population respectfully, according to census figures, they’re also a force to be reckoned with in California and Texas. In each of those states, Latinos make up 40% of the population. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is clearly worried about candy making a dent in the electorate. But then again, so is the campaign of foreign President Donald Trump. That’s because polls show that Kennedy is not just taking support from Biden, but might also draw votes from Trump as well. Given that reality, it’s no wonder that both campaigns recently agreed to have their own private debate, one without Kennedy on the stage, who says the two parties can’t compromise and come together. It turns out they can work together just fine if the shared objective is to save their hide. And now the Trump has been convicted by a New York jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to cover up hush money payments to an adult film star that if they had come to light would have derailed his 2016 presidential bid. There are early signs that Trump could lose support from independent or undecided voters who were before the verdict leaning his way, but now just can’t get over the hump of voting for criminal. A CBS News YouGov poll taken after the verdict found that 51% of Americans said that Trump is not fit to be president. While 40% said that he is 8%. were unsure either way. While it’s a good bet that much of that 51% is already planning on voting for Joe Biden. It’s not a given. Some of those voters that Trump might lose as a result of the verdict could also take a pass on Biden. They might just stay home or they might vote for penalty or some other third party option. Why? Because while it is now a matter of public record that Trump is a flawed human being so as Biden, in fact, both campaigns have the same slogan, vote for me because the other guy is terrible. Inspiring stuff, right? Biden is weak, indecisive, incompetent, ineffective, and totally out of ideas about how to handle everything from inflation, to the Middle East, to the crisis along the US Mexico border. Meanwhile, Trump is abrasive, extreme, divisive, narcissistic, fueled by drama. And now also just to put the cherry on the sundae. Yeah, he’s a convicted felon. As far as the parties are concerned, those are choices folks are only choices. Yeah, well guess what? The American people may have other ideas.