> Just because someone has ballot access is not enough of a > criteria to include one in debates. > > Are you aware that over 200 people nationwide run for > President every 4 years, officially filing with the FEC. > Many of them have ballot status in 1 or two states. Should > we have Presidential debates with 20 to 30 people? > > Surely, there's got to be more criteria than just ballot access. > > I'd say polling at least 5 to 10%.
There is a simple criteria that works: include all candidate that have a mathematical chance of winning. If a candidate is on state ballots that could give him enough electoral votes to win, include him. There have been minor party debates sponsored by the league of women voters, C-SPAN, etc. for many years using that criteria, and they worked fine (usually some crazy Socialist Workers Party candidate on 1 or 2 state ballots rushes the stage, angry at being excluded). Ask Richard Winger to be sure, but I highly doubt there have ever been more than 6-7 candidates who meet that criteria in any given year. Being on the ballot for a state or local office should automatically qualify a person for debates. Again, they have a mathematical chance of winning. In my opinion, not including candidates in debates is an in-kind donation to the included candidates. -Chuck Moulton P.S. Kinky Friedman seems to be in the libertarian quadrant. He's not a perfect 100/100 libertarian, but few people are. It would be nice to have several libertarians in debates like this to tag-team the statists with libertarian rhetoric. ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
