Why does Atrios hate third-party presidential candidates?

Yes, it may be nice that Barack Obama raised so much money from small donors that he appears to have made public campaign financing irrelevant.

But, what if Mike Huckabee had been able to get an average of $200 a pop from the 5 million most committed evangelical Christians?

Well, he’d be sitting on a cool $1 billion right now. Atrios and Francis Wilkinson might change their tunes.

Besides, the “liberal” run-Democrats-up-the-flagpole-and-salute bloggers are OK with the two-party duopoly, rather than real options.

That, of course, is why the only talk about public financing of Congressional campaigns in recent years has very specifically excluded third-party candidacies.