Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sunday's C-Span opportunity: 3rd-party candidates debate
Sunday's C-Span opportunity: 3rd-party candidates debate
By Maria Recio
McClatchy Newspapers: Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Third-party presidential candidates finally will have their own
debate: at 8 p.m. (5 p.m. PST) Sunday at Columbia University in New York.
The debate, which will be announced Wednesday, will include at least three
of the four third-party candidates - independent Ralph Nader, the Green
Party's Cynthia McKinney and the Constitution Party's Chuck Baldwin.
Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr said he has a scheduling conflict, but
debate organizers say he wanted to appear only with Nader. (Democratic
nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain are also invited.)
Nader and Barr are on the ballot in 45 states, while the Green Party is on
31 state ballots and the Constitution Party is on the ballot in 37 states.
Nader and McKinney also are on the District of Columbia ballot.
Organizers say the debate is an important exercise in democracy, especially
because the debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (the
last of which is Wednesday night) exclude candidates scoring below 15
percent in national polls. Nader, the best known of the candidates, has an
average of 2.5 percent in recent national polls, according to
realclearpolitics.com, while Barr averages 1.5 percent.
Nader maintains that if he could get into the debates run by the Commission
on Presidential Debates, his numbers would immediately climb because
"two-thirds of the people don't know we're running."
"It's a Catch-22."
Nader describes the debate commission as "a two-party dictatorial company
that doesn't want anybody else on the stage." The commission, created in
1987, is a corporation headed by two former chairs of the Democratic and
Republican parties.
But third-party critics of the system recently got some traction: the second
of the presidential debates prompted a chorus of criticism of the "boring"
format and the lack of follow-up questions.
Nader also will give the issue more visibility at a rally to open the
debates Wednesday night at New York's historic Cooper Union Great Hall,
where presidential candidates back to Abraham Lincoln have spoken.
The format for Sunday's third-party debate is still being finalized. It will
be moderated by Pacifica radio host Amy Goodman. The issues promoted by the
candidates strike a different chord from the major party standard-bearers -
all four are against the $700 billion economic bailout and all oppose the
Iraq war.
In addition, each has his or her own agenda: Nader rails against corporate
greed while McKinney promotes environmental causes. The Libertarian Party is
a critic of monetary policy and likes to invoke a return to the gold
standard. Baldwin of the Constitution Party represents a conservative, small
government, anti-abortion party that wants to "restore the government to its
biblical foundations."
The third-party debate will be streamed at www.thirdpartyticket.com and will
be shown on C-Span.
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