National: Red, blue and independent

Fred Lucas, a political reporter for the News-Times in Danbury, Connecticut, poses this question in the American Spectator:
"Third parties were once the domain of fringe political movements. Now, the Connecticut Senate race seems to have spawned fervent rhetoric from a radical center bent on stamping out so-called ideologues. The question is, could this message sell in red and blue America?"

Another question is, how did Mayor Bloomberg actually get elected? (A. His margin of victory in 2001 was 60,000 votes on the Independence Party line, pulled by veteran grassroots organizers in New York City.)

And another question might be, leaving aside the issue of who the candidate is, can this kind of campaign be run nationally? (A. Maybe, but independents have to be organized on the ground for this to happen.)

Rolling Stone put the question another way in Ben Wallace-Wells article, Bloomberg '08?
The Republican mayor of New York has become the party's fiercest internal critic. But can his "billionaire populism" bridge the nation's blue-red divide?