Barr Shooting for Debates

[Herb Schaffler]

July 14th, 2008 by Jason Pye
Politics magazine has a great article up on Bob’s [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. so another perspective can be heard in contrast to McBama:

This year, with former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr polling at 6 percent nationally, according to a recent Zogby survey, the Libertarian nominee is set to make his own push for inclusion in this year’s three official debates, and his campaign is already challenging the rules for qualifying.
“The criteria are absolutely, unequivocally unfair, and the debate commission is a complete fraud,” says Russell Verney, former campaign manager for Ross Perot who’s now managing Barr’s White House bid.
[...]
“We’re a population that historically likes debate, that likes information, that likes to be involved, that does not appreciate being force-fed only certain information by certain people at certain times,” Bob Barr says. “But that’s what the debates have largely become in recent years-simply a forum for the two major parties to preen before the voters and support the status quo and to take the nuanced differences between the parties and pretend that they are actually substantive differences.”
Barr just launched his campaign in mid May, but according to a recent Zogby poll he has significant support in some states, including 10 percent in New Hampshire and 8 percent in Georgia.
He is also likely to be on the ballot in 49 states, and seems to have tapped into some of the enthusiasm behind the Ron Paul movement, which had unprecedented success in bringing the Libertarian agenda into the mainstream. And while Russell Verney argues the debate commission’s criteria are biased, he says he remains optimistic Barr can reach the 15 percent threshold.
“We’re already at 6 percent nationally, ten in New Hampshire, nine in Oklahoma, Nevada, and elsewhere, so I feel confident we’ll get over the 15 percent,” he says. “But then this fraudulent commission will ask out-of-work political pundits and academics if we have a chance, and use that information, too.”

[NOTE] Just for clarification, this article is only referring to the debates by the [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , what Russ Verney lovingly and accurately calls the “fraudulent commission.” These debates carry the 15% polling threshold for candidates.
The article is not referring to the [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , which has a 10% threshold and is independently organized.