Cold this be the first serious attempt at a viable, major third party?

It could be.

But unless they can raise a whole lot of money like the Democrats and the Republicans, they won't survive.

For any third party to be truly viable it would require that the main-stream media approach their coverage of ALL political candidates in a equitable and unbiased manner. (Time/attention/positives and negatives).

Ain't gonna happen - we are still going to get Democrats shoved down our throats by the media (which by and large has an obviously liberal bias, except Fox which has a conservative bias ..... the point being....all news media has a bias/slant of some type) .... but one can hope.

Edit: BOTH democrats and republicans have their fanatics. Both have their good points and their bad. I would LOVE a viable 3rd party. I am beyond tired of the the two party partisan politics stranglehold we are under. However, the media has to cooperate and actually give equal time to a 3rd party candidate. Otherwise, you will get the same sheep voting in the same sheep way because most voters follow the media leadings like, well, sheep.

The first...? The Republcan party was a third party--so was the Bull Moose party. If today's Republicans wither away, your third party will be the second party.