Voters Want Well-Rounded Debates
Tuesday August 19, 2008
Zogby International reports that 55% of "likely voters" think Libertarian Presidential nominee Bob Barr should be part of the 2008 Presidential debates. Almost half -- 46% -- also think Ralph Nader should be in the debate party.
A key group in any election, political independents overwhelmingly (69%) want Barr on the stage. And 59% give the nod to Nader, as well. Poll margin of error: +/- 1.7 percentage points
The "Presidential debates" are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates; it was established by the two major political parties when the League of Women Voters bowed out due to pressures by the parties on format. Today, the Commission requires that a candidate must have the support of 15% of the public to be included in a debate. Catch-22: third party candidates need the national platform to get voter attention, but they must have voter attention to get on the stage.
Comments
Yep, it is all locked. Not very democratic though… At least, in the UK, the Lib Dems are invited to the debates. Which means there is a debate.
Hi, Alphast … you all also have a limit on the length of the campaign. :-/
But no direct election of the heads of state (queen or PM)
Kathy
I certainly agree with you there. My remark was not to take the UK as a good example, but rather to show a less bad way of doing things. In France, we have 6 or 7 main parties (which can lead to coalitions, but that’s not the case right now), all of them are invited to debate and we do elect the President by popular vote.
I know you’re not from the UK. =:-0
It was late at night here and I shoulda been in bed. Obviously.
Thanks for the details on the French process. Does France also limit the length of the campaign? What about financing?
While I live in Israel, I’m still a US citizen and following the presidential campaign. While it would be great to open the debates to a larger range of candidates, US businesses and industries likely prefer to keep it to two as much as the parties do. Essentially, the parties are bought and paid for by donations which, while technically from individuals, are often bundled by lobbyists or corporate interests into very nice, large packages of money. And it’s all technically legal.
You might expect that different business-industry categories would support the two parties, but surprisingly, while this might be so for an individual interest, the categories of business-interests (lawyers, entertainment, labor, health care, education, etc.) in the top twenty donors’ list for each candidate are substantially similar (sixteen of the twenty are identical, in fact). This suggests that the policies favoring these interest groups are substantially similar between the two parties, and the amount of influence bought is substantially similar.
If the debates actually included more parties, then either the influence would lessen, or the interests would have to spend money on the additional parties, which would increase their expenses. This would not be effective spending, from the interests’ point of view. Keep it to two.
For an analysis of campaign spending according to business-industry-interest category for each presidential candidate, see Life as Usual in Board Rooms and Back Rooms.
The good news is that, with estimates that each candidate will have to raise (and spend) half-a-billion dollars (yes, five-hundred million dollars), the total spending of just these two (not counting those who ran in the primaries, remember Hillary?) will contribute almost one billion (a thousand million) dollars to the economy. That’s got to help a little, at any rate.
In France, the official length of the campaign is very limited (usually a couple of weeks or a month) though, obviously, unofficialy it is another story. Campaign expenses are reimbursed by the State if you do more than 5% votes. Campaign funding by private entities is strictly limited and donations are always registered. Obviously, some try to turn the law, but the penalties are quite deterring.
Hi, IsraelPalm … I find your comment compelling.
Alphast, do you have links to info on French campaign finance … that are in English? My French … (LOL) … mon Francais n’est pas beaux