Details are still being hashed out, but so far at least Nader, Cynthia and Constitution Party Candidate Chuck Baldwin will attend a debate on Sunday at 7pm at Columbia University, moderated by Pacifica Radio’s Amy Goodman. No word on whether Pacifica will carry the broadcast, but it will be on C-SPAN (whether live or not is anybody’s guess). Libertarian Bob Barr is claiming a ‘conflict’, I guess ’cause he can’t handle a debate with anyone but Nader, which is too bad - it’s always good to have the Libertarians to kick around.
I attended a 3-way debate between David Cobb (G), Michael Badnarik (LP), and Michael Peroutka (CP) in NYC in 2004, and it was a really great event. All of the candidates actually answered the questions, first of all, which was very refreshing.
I’m flying back from Phoenix that day, and will try to get my flight moved up so I can be there to liveblog it. I’ll post more details when I hear about them, but use the comments to add any details I don’t have yet. If you can get to NYC this weekend please attend - let’s make a good Green showing, shall we?
4 responses so far ↓
1 breaks5 // Oct 16, 2008 at 2:50 am
I got a ticket woohoo! At least we’re finally having a real televised debate, with a credible moderator. I don’t mean to offend any libertarian posters (if there are any), but I don’t think we’ll be missing much if Barr doesn’t show. This is the 2nd bs stunt he’s pulled in the last month since Ron Paul’s multiple 3rd party candidate endorsement (putting aside the fact that he seems to me to’ve hijacked the traditional main small government party). If he really feels he deserves the stage all to himself, then he can have it, but not part of any debate. Chuck Baldwin’s platform may stink, but at least he has enough credibility to agree that the war needs to end, the current political system stinks, we need to balance the budget and he’s willing to debate the how with candidates on the center left, or whatever we’re called. That’s putting aside the proximity in his party’s positions to those of the libertarians. This should be a pretty good moment in the sun for progressive party politics and 3rd parties more generally.
2 Green Ferret // Oct 16, 2008 at 5:59 am
Maybe Barr is worried that his vote for the P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act might come back to haunt him in the debate. Fortunately, Cynthia McKinney doesn’t have that problem.
3 breaks5 // Oct 16, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I’ve actually seen some party literature that is encouraging GP activists to reach out to the Barr campaign/Libertarian Party to try to persuade them to participate in the debate. The basic argument is it would strengthen the ad hoc loose 3rd party coalition we have (such that there is from the Paul platform), as well raise the credibility of third parties in general if you have all 4 “viable” groups/agendas represented in the debate (look at Paul’s definition of viability if the term is at all unclear). This is actually tantamount to only two since we don’t differ much from the Naderites and the two parties don’t differ much from the right either, but we all have legitimate claims to be represented at the debate, actually in all the debates.
Conversely the argument goes that our credibility and tactical alliance suffer w/o Barr’s presence. I don’t personally care if her shows for the reasons I said, but I see the logic in the argument and whatever helps third parties in general and ours in particular is acceptable to me.
4 breaks5 // Oct 16, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Sorry I meant to say the two parties ON THE RIGHT don’t differ from one another much either.
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