My apologies for a fairly short diary. I recently came across this news/blog article concerning Bob Barr offering to take McCain's place in the presidential debate and found it entirely too amusing not to share it with Daily Kos.
The title of it alone speaks volumes: 'Me, me!' Bob Barr raises his hand for debate
Sadly, this is pretty much how third party candidates are treated. The demands that they receive 15% of the polling vote before being allowed in the debate seriously handicaps these dark horse candidates, and cuts down on free speech.
Indeed, it is entirely likely that even as Ralph Nader stole the election from Al Gore in 2000, Ross Perot (the only recent third-party candidate to be in national debates) stole the election from George Bush and helped get Bill Clinton elected.
There is a bit of an outcry to allow third party candidates to be in these debates... or at least in one of them. For free speech purposes and to allow these people to get more publicity and grant voters the chance to learn more of the alternative candidates, I believe these third-party candidates should be allowed to have their voice heard (say lower the percentage of likely voters from the current 15% to 2% - meaning that several million people are likely to vote for this person).
As for Barr? I say let him take McCain's place. It should be well worth a laugh, it might help illuminate an alternative to McCain for arch-conservatives, and it'll be a slap in McShame's face to let him know he can't just pull stunts like attempting to back out of debates without suffering repercussions for those actions.
Robert A. Howard, Tangents Reviews