Sunday's C-Span opportunity: 3rd-party candidates debate

[JonLP24]

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — Third-party presidential candidates finally will have their own debate: at 8 p.m. 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.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/310/story/53922.html

[Myrina]

1. ... and what about the 'rest' of the candidates?

... Natural Law, communist, etc etc ... I recall a couple election cycles ago, C-SPAN actually had them all represented, and it was a wonderful thing!


:patriot:

[JonLP24]

2. I don't know how many ballots those guys are on

Here in Arizona it was Obama, McCain, Barr, Nader, and McKinney.

[harmonicon]

3. I wish they would all debate

I think that anyone on enough ballots to win a majority of electoral votes should be allowed into a debate. It's crazy that people get absolutely no news coverage, and then are shafted for not being higher in the polls. It's a vicious circle. We need serious election reform in this country.

[bbgrunt]

4. great! I look forward to it.