Our national liberal commentators can be so indescribably stupid

If you fail to see through someone as transparently phony as Buddy Roemer, you really have no business even trying.

Pierce is, of course, correct about Americans Elect.  But if you even come close to exonerating Buddy Roemer, you lose all credit.

Definition of "centrist"

Billionaire "deficit hawk"

Americans Elect's problems were seeded with its founding by billionaire Peter Ackerman, a former top lieutenant to junk-bond king Michael Milliken, and a few of his well-heeled friends. They chose in 2010 to change their IRS status from that of a political organization to that of a social welfare organization, which does not have to identify its donors.

That also meant its leadership ostensibly couldn't indicate any preference for any candidate or type of candidate, even though it has been plain to observers that the debt-and-deficit hawk centrism of someone like (AE board member David) Walker is to their liking.

"It's true that Americans Elect doesn't show a preference for a candidate; it isn't able to under law, but he does align well with where Americans who feel betrayed by both parties would like a candidate to be," said Troiano, acknowledging that a candidate of "the vital center" like Walker is "the kind of candidate Americans Elect in theory was built to give a platform for."

But so far the effort to draft Walker has drawn fewer than 500 clicks.

"They have made it very clear that they have a certain kind of centrist in mind, that they don't' want who they consider extremist or people who are divisive," said Anderson, a candidate of what he might describe as the "vital left."

Markos Moulitsas commented on the Americans Elect debacle a few days ago.

Remember Americans Elect? Of course you don't. No one does. It's an operation by Fox News Democrat Doug Schoen, former George W. Bush media consultant Mark McKinnon, former Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, political legacy and failed entrepreneur Nathan Daschle, and a bunch of other people who have decided that people aren't non-partisan-y enough—like them!

As far as I can tell, they believe that the Republican Party is being too Republican, while Democrats aren't being Republican enough. Therefore, they convinced themselves of the existence of some great American center that would then nominate their pals Michael Bloomberg or Olympia Snowe. Foolproof!

Apparently the Bloombergs and Snowes of the world weren't quite "non-partisan" enough.  Or maybe most Americans see this thing for the elitist joke that it is. 

By the way, the T-P article is about former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer's failed attempt to glom his so-called Presidential campaign, which has been limited mostly to demagoguing against the evil influence of money in politics via Twitter, onto this billionaires' vehicle for exerting influence on politics. Which should pretty much tell you all you need to know about Buddy Roemer.