Andrew Davis, on the Libertarian Party HQ website addresses why Barr will not attend the third party debate scheduled for Sunday evening.
…official invitations for the debate just went out this week — mere days before the event is to take place. Given that the proposed event is intended to take place less than 16 days before the election, it is a little absurd to assume that candidates, in the peak of a presidential campaign, have time to drop all pre-scheduled activities and run off to New York for a hastily planned event.
The Barr campaign, which has a very fast paced travel schedule, had already made campaign commitments in other parts of the nation that can’t, and won’t, be dropped for an event that another campaign put together at the last minute without prior coordination. There is good reason why the Commission on Public Debates puts out their schedule well in advance; it gives the campaigns a chance to put it on their calendar.
Contrast that with the fact the invitations to this hastily conceived event are still in the mail.
All along, the Barr campaign has said it would be willing to debate any third-party candidate if the debate was going to be at the national level. Otherwise, the Barr campaign has a campaign plan and they are going to stick to it.
Please understand that we cannot help the events surrounding the organization of this debate. Bob will continue to do as he has been doing for the last few weeks, visiting battleground states and spreading the message of Liberty.
Looking at the comments to the blog entry from the Barr campaign, It looks like Barr is losing some formerly staunch supporters over this decision. Others are heartened by the decision and view the debate as an opportunity to preach to the choir rather than campaign for new votes.
I can see both sides but I must admit I lean on the side of wanting Barr to participate in the debate. Although this desire could be more selfish than practical because I think Barr could earn some votes by actually campaigning face to face.
This is equivalent in strategy to shunning your base while seeking new votes. That is a balancing act in any campaign, but I think for Barr it is a particularly dangerous strategy when a good portion of his base isn’t already completely devoted to him. In the end he could lose more votes from his brittle base than he gains from courting the undecided.
Tonight is the final Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. It’s no surprise that they still haven’t invited any third party candidates like Bob Barr or Ralph Nader. I still think Ron Paul should be the moderator at one of these debates. Many felt the last debate was boring after there were promises of attacks from both sides. Tonight’s debate may (or may not) bring some fireworks.
John McCain has fallen further behind in the polls so he may believe he has nothing to lose by attacking Obama forcefully. McCain has a history of coming from behind. Will it be too little too late for him? Who knows, but along the way we’ll have our live blog going and we encourage you to join us and comment along with us as we watch the debate.
If nothing else it is a good place to vent your own frustrations at the status quo politicians, one of which will likely be President next year. Unfortunately, these debates perpetuate the myth that there are only two candidates in the running when there are at least 4 others who’d like to have their voices heard: Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Cynthia McKinney.
There is not much to say about the debate. It was status quo. They both talked about the issues and did some standard attacks, but not much new occurred. McCain proposed one new thing I haven’t heard before: allowing the Treasury Secretary to buy out bad home loans. Wow, and he also says he won’t raise taxes on anyone. I suppose the hidden inflation tax doesn’t count though does it John? Perhaps he should consult Ron Paul for his next debate appearance.
McCain also seemed to move away from the normal Republican base quite a bit in this debate. He promoted, on more than one occasion, when he voted against Bush/Cheney on things like climate change. On foreign policy he softened his tone a bit. It seems he was trying to appeal to the middle of the road undecided voters. It remains to be seen if he was successful.
Alex Castellanos, a GOP media strategist and CNN pundit pretty much sums up the debate in the video below.
Castellanos worked for Mitt Romney and George Bush in 2004. He is known as the “father of the modern attack ad.” Here he attacks both candidates to the joy of limited government third party candidate supporters of Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin everywhere.
“McCain wants to buy everyone a house, and Obama wants to buy everyone health care. I think that’s remarkable for a country that is broke.” – Alex Castellanos
Join us for the 2nd Presidential Debate tonight around 8:45pm Eastern for our continuing live blog of the debates. The gloves have come off lately between Barack Obama and John McCain and the war of accusations has escalated so this could be a debate to remember. Also making it interesting is that the format of the debate is more of a town hall style with questions being asked from the audience. The conventional wisdom is that John McCain is better at this style of debate than Barack Obama. Judging by the recent polls John McCain needs to do well during this debate. Obama is said to have locked up an estimated 264 electoral votes, needing only 270 to win. That is of course, according to scientific, but imperfect polls.
Will John McCain rise up again after being counted out? Will Obama dodge McCain’s attacks and do some attacking of his own? Join us below to find out.
Forget the VP Debate, it was for the birds! Besides the upcoming Break the Matrix Third Party Debate, you can have this debate right now! Let me show you with my Sarah Palin and Ralph Nader example. Plus an idea to change American politics for millions of young Americans with viral media.
<< For those unaware, please read George Dance’s critical article “Third-party debate in early October” on the upcoming Third Party Debate in early October. Date is not yet announced. >>
Fellow columnist Jonathan Cymberknopf reported in his late September article “Ralph Nader and Bob Barr banned from the media” that the media has stopped covering the Third Party tickets who have a mathematical chance to win, and this does indeed seem to be the case. These candidates in alphabetical order are:
He is mostly correct; the mainstreammedia is completely ignoring these candidates. However, viral media has the potential to take the third party’s message to millions, spreading far TRUER democracy, and revealing the current election of McBama as the staged sham that it truly is. The cool facet about it is that if it starts, its spreads like wildfire because everyone shares with everyone else. On the flip side, there is only one month left, but with the financial world reeling, McBama-supported idiotic bailouts and bank failures galore, there is a real chance this could have a lasting effect on American politics for a long time to come, if it is done correctly. Here is the idea.
NOTE: The live blogging of the VP debate is now over, but you can follow the link below to read the transcript.
Join us right now and participate with us as we comment on the Vice Presidential Debate as it happens. Tonight’s debate is from St. Louis, Missouri and features the “conservative” newbie Sarah Palin vs. the establishment DC “lifer” Democrat Joe Biden.
Yeah, it would be fun if Ron Paul could be the replacement moderator for the Vice Presidential debate this evening, but as George Stephanopoulus would say, “That’s not going to happen”. The actual moderator, Gwen Ifill from PBS, has been accused of holding a bias for Barack Obama due to her authoring a book praising the ground breaking candidate. She refuses to accept the accusations of bias and will forge ahead with moderating the debate between hockey mom Sarah Palin and DC lifer Joe Biden.
Biden has a long reputation for making brazen statements that often get him in trouble. Palin has made her share of “mistakes” in her short time in the public eye as well. It is safe to say that there may be some verbal fireworks at the debate tonight. The McCain campaign has done its best to downplay the expectations of Palin in the debate, but from my perspective it is Biden who has more to lose. Biden must tread carefully with his words so he does not come off as being sexist or domineering. We’ll see tonight.
Won’t you join us for our second live blogging event? The last one morphed into a chat room more than a live blog, but it was enjoyable and we received positive feedback so we are doing it again. Feel free to participate below beginning at 8:45pm Eastern tonight. The debate begins at 9pm Eastern.
As George Will said on ABC following the debate, “They argued about $18 billion of earmarks and that is only a rounding error compared to the full budget”. Too true George. That statement alone sums up the entire debate. The debate was predictable and will amount to nothing more than a “rounding error” in the grand scheme of the election. Now (and I have to say it) wouldn’t it have been more interesting to have a couple other voices on that stage? If there’s one thing that I learned from the debate it was this: Oh how I miss Ron Paul. Bob Barr could have been that Paul-like voice, but that was more than an uphill battle to begin with.
I thought Obama was slightly better and seemed more genuine, but that’s no surprise. Now the media pundits discuss the “effectiveness” of the debate and claim there was no “clear winner”.
In my mind there is certainly a clear loser… the American people. The candidates argued about who’s intervention was better. They argued about who should be taxed. They both agreed on most of the larger issues. No wonder some are having problems choosing between them.
There was no mention of the document one of them will pledge to defend and uphold upon taking office. It’s almost like the Constitution has become a dirty word to them. It is the new “third rail” of politics.
I wonder if they will modify the oath of office and change the word “Constitution” to the following:
“the old irrelevant document that I will ignore even though it is supposed to be the supreme law of the land.”
At least then, we’d get some honesty from our politicians.
We had the live blog open for commentary on the first debate between Obama and McCain. For a transcript of our comments and several of our readers check out the link below.
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