I wonder if Obama would be doing so well if he belonged to another party or if he were independent? I think he would. Also, while not the presidential election, Senator Lieberman switched parties and won. He's considered an 'Independent Democrat' because he votes along (mostly) Democrat party lines but lost the primary as a Democrat and turned around and ran as an independent and won.

http://lieberman.senate.gov/about/

>>>There is no Constitutional rule that requires any party at all. We seemed to have settled on 2 major parties, although throughout our history we've had more. And even today, there's the Democrats, the Republicans, the Libertarians, the Green Party....and proabably several more that I'm forgetting right at the moment.
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>>Do you have currently anyone elected in the White House that's not coming from the Democrats or the Republican party?
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>A better question would be, when was the last time any other party meant anything, and had more than a symbolic presence in any election?