Did you hear about what happened at the presidential campaign debate yesterday? One of the candidates didn’t bother to show up.
No, I’m not talking about the competition of dueling extremisms from the Republicans in Michigan. This debate was between more reasonable presidential candidates, competing for the Green Party nomination.
The debate was hosted by the Arizona Green Party in Glendale yesterday afternoon. Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party frontrunner, was there. Rosanne Barr, actor and more recent entry to the Green presidential contest, did not come. Barr has been working on a new television series for NBC, “Downwardly Mobile”, in which she co-stars with John Goodman as the manager of a trailer park.
Although Barr has celebrity name recognition and money, Stein has been dominant in the Green Party primary contests being held so far. Stein has 22 delegates dedicated to her at the Green Party convention to be held in July. Barr has just 5. Kent Mesplay has 2. There are 2 uncommitted delegate slots secured so far.
Related links:
- Jill Stein for President campaign buttons
- Green Party of the United States
- Green Party Watch
Maybe if the Arizona Green Party had also invited myself, Gerard Davis, Michael Oatman (all of us registered members of the AZGP who live in the state) or Gary Swing — the four other candidates besides Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay on Tuesday’s ballot (I have been endorsed by Tucson Weekly: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/severely-awesome/Content?oid=3243977), they might have had an actual debate.
They did so with tongue firmly in cheek, just as you campaign with tongue firmly in cheek.
If it was in front of a live audience, they would really get to know her views on the issues – she’d get a chance to state them uninterupted and in depth.
There are third parties other than the Green Party!
Libertarian Party Debates
Florida February 10 3:00-5:00 Eastern
Georgia February 25 3:30-5:30 Eastern
Texas February 25 7:30-10:30 Central
More coming in the future I hope. I watched one of them via an online podcast, after the fact. It was a good debate. Why are Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson the thrid party candidates that get almost all of the non-AE third party attention?
Stephen, I personally give more attention to the Green Party and Jill Stein on the one hand, and Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party on the other hand, because they are reasonable candidates with good ideas. The Libertarian Party doesn’t have reasonable candidates with reasonable ideas, in my opinion. The Libertarians are reckless and would make our current problems even worse, taking away the structures of democratic government that protect liberty, and putting nothing in their place.
That’s not really an objective assessment. It has a strong progressive bias in it. I tend to be somewhat more neutral in my assessment like Wikipedia.
It’s wrong to say that anyone who isn’t a progressive is anti-democracy. Progressive tend to use democracy in a way different from the way everyone else uses it.
What government structures are you reffering to? An unbiased defintion of democracy doens’t mandate the actual ideological makeup of the people of the democracy just that their votes are the ultimate makers of the rules of that society.
Had Roseanne Barr said she was going to be at the Arizona debate? And did any of the other Green candidates besides Jill Stein participate?