As it looks like more and more of a certainty that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for president this year, the world of political punditry has begun flailing around for some sort of storyline which keeps the excitement alive, because they just love a good horserace (even when anyone with eyes can see the race has already been won). Sooner or later, they're going to discover what could be the biggest curveball of the election season, though: a group calling itself Americans Elect.

Americans Elect was the brainchild of some New York moneymen, who are touting it as the ultimate centrist third-party White House bid. Their plan, in a nutshell, is to spend the money and effort up front getting their "party" on the ballot in all 50 states. Later this year, they will hold an online "convention" where anyone who registers with the site can vote for the ideal centrist candidate. Then the candidate will be able to waltz into the presidential race with all the crucial groundwork already done for them.

So far, not a whole lot of people have paid attention to this effort. But my guess is that once it becomes painfully obvious that Mitt Romney has wrapped up the Republican bid, the third party story is going to become irresistible to the media.

The question, at that point, will become: Who is Americans Elect going to elect? An early glimpse at their website shows their current frontrunners -- such as they are. Here's a quick rundown of who is leading the pack so far:

Ron Paul -- 4,054 "supporters"
Jon Huntsman -- 2,029
Bernie Sanders -- 1,422
Barack Obama -- 1,238
Mike Bloomberg -- 791
Gary Johnson -- 612
Stephen Colbert -- 583
Jon Stewart -- 394
Elizabeth Warren -- 304
Dennis Kucinich -- 280

A diverse lot, to be sure. Throwing out the names on this list who are obviously never going to be accepted as a real candidate (Colbert, Stewart), and those who already have a major party's nomination (Obama), we are left with seven names. Three of these are from the hard Left (Sanders, Warren, Kucinich), two are Libertarians (Paul, Johnson), and two who can honestly be called centrists (Huntsman, Bloomberg).

Warren and Kucinich can likely be written off, if the voting so far is any indication of real support. This leaves Paul, Huntsman, Sanders, Bloomberg, and Johnson in the running. Because of the online nature of the voting, one can safely assume that Ron Paul is going to emerge as the top vote-getter (Paulites are known for their internet savviness when it comes to online balloting of any type).

This doesn't mean, though, that Ron Paul will be on the Americans Elect ballot. The folks who have put up the money for this exercise have retained the right to veto any candidate they deem insufficiently centrist. And they get to define what "centrist" means to them, or to be more blunt who is an acceptable-enough candidate to enjoy the fruits of their ballot-access labors. If Ron Paul wins the voting and is turned down, look for howls of rage from his supporters when the decision is announced, of course. But the people who put up the money get to make the rules, so this howling likely won't change anything at all.

Jon Huntsman would seem to be a candidate in the mold of what Americans Elect are looking for -- someone who is not an ideologue and who puts country ahead of party. But even Huntsman might not be deemed acceptable, if the rumors are true. Because skeptics are already saying that Americans Elect was created for one reason, and one reason alone: to convince Michael Bloomberg to run.

Would he enter the race? It's an open question. Would he enter the race if the process itself was seen as tainted (if Ron Paul is disqualified, in other words)? Would Bloomberg think he would have a real shot at winning? These are all unanswered questions at this point.

The bigger question is how this will affect the November election. No matter who Americans Elect chooses, being on the ballot in 50 states means they will have to be taken seriously by both Democrats and Republicans. The dynamics of a third-party candidate will be fascinating to watch, and may wind up defining the 2012 race in the same fashion that Ross Perot defined the 1992 race. Both of the major parties will be asking themselves who the Americans Elect candidate is going to be siphoning votes from: their guy, or the other guy? This will become the crucial unanswerable question, once Americans Elect announces their nomination.

These questions are all going to eventually be asked by the mainstream media, once they are forced to give up on their dreams of a "brokered" Republican convention -- say, around June. Mark your calendars.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant