NO DEBATES? NO CHANCE:

The combined clout of Mr. Johnson and Ms. Stein fell from 17% of registered voters in July to 9% in the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.  The running RealClearPolitics polling average of all four candidates is even less generous, showing Mr. Johnson and Ms. Stein dropping from around 12% at various times this summer to just 7% now.

This sag in popularity shouldn't be surprising. Never in modern American presidential politics has a third-party candidate gained in momentum down the stretch.

The best performing of all by far, Ross Perot in 1992, ended up with 18.9% of the national vote and may have helped swing the election to Bill Clinton-a bone of contention to this day. But earlier that summer Mr. Perot was garnering a third of the vote. Former Republican John Anderson in 1980 saw an even steeper fall in support, hovering near a quarter of the vote in the summer but ending up with less than 7% of in November.

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