A subset of placeholders is the placeholder candidate. A
placeholder candidate is used in politics as a temporary stand-in for ballot access petitioning purposes until the actual nominees are decided. The need for such placeholders arises from the fact that many
third parties must begin their petitioning efforts to meet ballot access deadlines well before their nominating conventions. In any event, the petitions are technically to put presidential electors on the ballot, who may switch their allegiance at any time. In 2008,
Michael Badnarik was used as a placeholder candidate in
Libertarian petitioning, and
Michael Bloomberg and
Gail Parker were used as placeholders in
Independent Green petitioning. The use of placeholders is sometimes criticized as deceptive. Perhaps the best-known placeholder candidate was retired Admiral
James Stockdale, who had been used in 1992 as a placeholder
vice presidential candidate by activists seeking to draft
Ross Perot to run for the presidency as an independent. By the time Perot committed to run, it was too late to remove Stockdale's name from the ballot, and Stockdale remained on the ticket, even joining
Dan Quayle and
Al Gore in the nationally televised vice presidential debate, where Stockdale quipped, "Who am I? Why am I here?" in his introductory speech. ==References==