tagged w/ 2008 Presidential Election
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1.20.09 was a momentous notion prior to the knowledge that a fallen McCain in his first term could equal something worse than George W. Bush if things go south in this November's election.1.20.09 was a momentous notion prior to the knowledge that a fallen McCain in his... more
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How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?
I have been dreaming about Sarah Palin. (Apparently, I'm not alone.) I wish I could say that I'd been conjuring witty, politically sophisticated nightmares in which she leads troops into Vancouver or kindergartners in the recitation of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But, alas, mine have been nonsensical, kiddie-style doozies in which she kidnaps my cats, or enjoys a meal with my girlfriends while I bang on the restaurant window. There's also a chilling one, in which a scary witch stands on a wind-swept hill and leers at me.
What troubles me most -- aside from the fact that there is suddenly a Republican candidate potent enough to so ensnare my psyche -- is my sense that these are dreams in which it matters very much that Palin is a woman.
I have been writing about feminism for more than five years; I have been covering the gender politics of the 2008 presidential election for more than two. And I am absolutely gobsmacked by the intensity of my feelings about Sarah Palin. I am stunned not only by the way in which her candidacy has changed the rules in the gender debate, or how it is twisting and garbling the fight for women's progress. But I'm also startled by how Palin herself is testing my own beliefs about how I react to women in power.
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So much of this article is very quotable! My favorite paragraph is:
Palin's femininity is one that is recognizable to most women: She's the kind of broad who speaks on behalf of other broads but appears not to like them very much. The kind of woman who, as Jessica Grose at Jezebel has eloquently noted, achieves her power by doing everything modern women believed they did not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. It works because these stances do not upset antiquated gender norms. So when the moment comes, when tolerance for and interest in female power have been forcibly expanded by Clinton, a woman more willing to throw elbows and defy gender expectations but who falls short of the goal, Palin is there, tapped as a supposedly perfect substitute by powerful men who appreciate her charms.
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Read More!How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a... more
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If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire." If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."
If you live in an Urban area and you get a girl pregnant you're a "baby daddy." If you're the same in Alaska you're a "teen father." (Actually, according to your own MySpace page you're an F'n redneck that don't want any kids, but that's too long a phrase for the evil liberal media to take out of context and flog morning noon and night).
Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America . White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."
If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic." Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."
Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic." Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."
If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reckless." A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a "maverick."
If you say that for the "first time in my adult lifetime I'm really proud of my country" it makes you "unfit" to be First Lady. If you are a registered member of a fringe political group that advocates secession that makes you "First Dude."
A DUI from twenty years ago is "old news." A speech given without proper citation from twenty years ago is "relevant information."
And, finally, if you're a man and you decide to run for office despite your wife's recurrence of cancer you're a "questionable spouse." If you're a woman and you decide to run for office despite having five kids including a newborn... Well, we don't know what that is 'cause THAT'S NOT A FAIR QUESTION TO ASK.
Up in the Twin Cities area folks are speaking a new language. Or, should I say Palinguage. It sounds sorta familiar because it's Latin based. But different from the plain English we're used to speaking, in Palinguage recognizable words take on new meanings. Won't you take a moment to learn some Plainguage so you can talk like a hypocritical conservative?
~~~~~~From The Huffington Post by John Ridley If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified... more
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The day before the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, FactCheck.org -- one of the nonpartisan journalism websites heroically trying to strain truth amid all the sound and fury -- had to put out an extraordinary news release. It chastised John McCain's campaign for -- now get this -- distorting FactCheck's debunking of distortions.
Here's more of the story.
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The Sept. 11 memorial bells chimed with beautiful clarity Thursday, from Shanksville, Pa., to ground zero and beyond, a reminder of tragedy and our nation's real enemies.
What a welcome respite, that serene sound, after days of presidential politics that roared and sputtered with a cacophony of distortion, innuendo and outright lies.
It got so bad the day before the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that FactCheck.org -- one of the nonpartisan journalism websites heroically trying to strain truth amid all the sound and fury -- had to put out an extraordinary news release.
It chastised John McCain's campaign for -- now get this -- distorting FactCheck’s debunking of distortions.
News organizations and these admirable truth-squadding outfits, including PolitiFact.com, do not collaborate. But in independent news reports and commentaries this week, they seemed to reach a consensus to say "enough" to the McCain camp's efforts to demonize Barack Obama.
I'm not saying that Obama hasn't told a few whoppers -- like suggesting McCain's proposed corporate tax breaks are tailored specifically for oil companies or that his opponent seriously believes anyone making under $5 million is middle-class.
But it's McCain and his foot soldiers who have really fouled the election airwaves in recent days, provoking the first flickerings of a backlash from the media.
Give credit to PolitiFact.com -- an online endeavor operated by Florida's St. Petersburg Times along with Congressional Quarterly -- for unequivocally knocking down one of the McCainites' biggest fabrications in recent days. You know, the one where Obama supposedly called Republican V.P. nominee Sarah Palin a pig.
For the half-dozen of you who haven't heard about this kerfuffle: It began this week when Obama belittled McCain's suggestion that McCain would bring change to Washington.
"That's not change," Obama told a responsive audience. "That's just calling something -- the same thing -- something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig."
McCain operatives puffed themselves up with outrage about Obama's "sexism." Then they released a Web advertisement, disingenuously flashing text on the screen -- "Barack Obama on: Sarah Palin" -- while cutting to Obama's "lipstick on a pig" remark.
As noted on PolitiFact, the ad gives no context for Obama's remark -- context that made it clear the Democrat was belittling McCain's claim that he is an agent of change.
PolitiFact rated the McCain ad “Pants on Fire” (as in "liar, liar") on its Truth-O-Meter. "If anyone's doing any smearing," the site concluded, "it's the McCain campaign and its outrageous attempt to distort the facts."
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There's a lot more to read!The day before the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, FactCheck.org -- one of the... more
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Here's what FactCheck.org says about Sarah Palin in response to a widely circulated email written by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, Alaska.
Sometimes I wonder, who checks on the fact checkers?
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She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.
Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."
Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she increased funding and signed a bill that will triple per-pupil funding over three years for special needs students with high-cost requirements.
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Follow the link to read more. Here's what FactCheck.org says about Sarah Palin in response to a widely... more
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Asked this afternoon at a Riverside, Ohio, press availability whether the surprise addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket has helped John McCain woo women, Barack Obama said no. "There is no doubt that ... Republicans are excited, particularly the right wing of the party ... by Governor Palin's choice," Obama said. "I think that has less to do with gender than it has to do with her ideological predispositions, which are closely aligned to theirs."
It was a savvy strategic answer, given that Obama's main messaging objective these days is to paint Palin as Pat Robertson with ovaries. But realistically, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Obama is right that the Republican base is excited by Palin; according to Gallup, the number of GOPers saying they're stoked about this year's election jumped to 60 percent yesterday from 42 percent a week ago, a leap that has narrowed the "enthusiasm gap" between the parties from 19 points to 7. But by and large Republicans were already planning to vote for McCain--even if some of them weren't happy about it--and as such can't be said to account for the 10-point postconvention polling swing that now has McCain either tied or ahead of Obama in every available national survey. For that, you'd have to see how McCain's performance improved among people who said they weren't expecting to vote for the Republican ticket before St. Paul, but now say they are.
Which brings us to women--specifically white women. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken ahead of the conventions, Obama was leading among these voters by a robust 8-point margin, 50 percent to 42 percent. But the latest version of the same survey, out yesterday, shows McCain winning white women 53-41. That's a sudden 20-point net shift in McCain's direction. Obama's "analysis"--that a sizable swath of right-wing women were planning to vote for a socially liberal Democrat until they discovered that a social conservative had joined the Republican ticket--is simply irrational. The more logical explanation is that a number of moderate white women who loosely preferred Obama last month are now attracted to Palin not because of her views on abortion and abstinence and creationism in schools but in spite of them (otherwise, they wouldn't be moderates, and they wouldn't be considering Obama). Meanwhile, the latest Gallup survey shows "political independents shifting to [McCain] in fairly big numbers, from 40 percent pre-convention to 52 percent postconvention," while Obama's share of the indepedent vote plunges to 37 percent.
In other words, McCain's new voters are coming from the middle--not the fringe. Despite what Obama says.
Obama underestimates Palin's appeal to moderates--which has more to do with personality than policy--at his own peril. Sure, she's a rock-solid conservative--a fact that, when repeated ad nauseam, will certainly help Obama win back some centrist defectors. And yes, the novelty will wear off and Palin's initial bump will shrink on its own. But the fact that her mere presence in the race--her celebrity, really--has prompted double-digit swings in McCain's direction from the middle of the political spectrum should probably give Chicago pause. Obama may want to make this election about the issues--as well it should be. But given how easily the largely low-information public is swayed by gut-level appeals--a phenomenon that's benefited him as much as anyone--Obama should probably "attack her strength" a la Karl Rove, and make "personality" an issue as well. With that in mind, we'd expect to hear less about Palin's "ideological predispositions" and more about, say, her "naked [Bridge to Nowhere] lies"--Chicago's words, not mine--as Nov. 4 approaches.
Asked this afternoon at a Riverside, Ohio, press availability whether the surprise... more
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If the conservative, christian right did not learn anything from being lead into a cage for the past eight years with religious promises, then Sara Palin is the ultimate payoff. This Vice Presidential nomination is yet another reason that the American democracy has tried to make a clean separation of religion and state. If the conservative, christian right did not learn anything from being lead into a... more
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Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life.
In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.
Arguing that the media queries are being fueled by "every rumor and smear" posted on left-wing Web sites, Schmidt said mainstream journalists are giving "closer scrutiny" to McCain's little-known running mate than to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin. Obama campaign officials have complained to news organizations that their man has been subjected to considerably more investigative reporting than McCain has, but they have done so in more low-key fashion.
By contrast, Schmidt spoke on the record in denouncing as "an absolute work of fiction" a New York Times account of the process by which the McCain campaign vetted Palin. He also charged that Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman was predicting that the governor might have to step down as McCain's vice presidential choice.
Fineman said that he has "never, ever said that," and that he has pointed out positive aspects of Palin's candidacy. "They decided a long time ago that they were going to work the refs," he said.
Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of... more
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Palin was one of two finalists in the vice presidential sweepstakes who were interviewed last week by former White House counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., just days before McCain introduced her to the nation as his choice. The other finalist was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. One of the officials said Culvahouse was chasing down last-minute information about Pawlenty at the request of the campaign as late as last Thursday, the day McCain offered the job to Palin and she accepted.
The new details of the selection process provide a fuller picture of how and when McCain made his decision. Despite the late interview of the little-known Palin, senior McCain advisers said Tuesday night that she was chosen only after a lengthy and deliberative process that included the same background investigation given to others on McCain's shortlist and considerable debate among the candidate's inner circle about all his choices.
McCain did not speak face to face with Palin until Thursday morning, at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz. He also talked to her by telephone the previous Sunday. McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose.
***Read More***Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview... more
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.
There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage.
In introducing Palin as his running mate on Friday, Sen. John McCain cast her as a compatriot in his battle against wasteful federal spending. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, hailed Palin as a politician "with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies -- someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who's stopped government from wasting taxpayers' money."
McCain's crusade against earmarks -- federal spending sought by members of Congress to benefit specific projects -- has been a hallmark of his campaign. He has said earmarks are wasteful and are often inserted into bills with little oversight, sometimes by a single powerful lawmaker.
Palin has also railed against earmarks, touting her opposition to a $223 million bridge in the state as a prime credential for the vice presidential nomination. "As governor, I've stood up to the old politics-as-usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good-ol'-boy network," she said Friday.
As mayor of Wasilla, however, Palin oversaw the hiring of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, an Anchorage-based law firm with close ties to Alaska's most senior Republicans: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who was indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts. The Wasilla account was handled by the former chief of staff to Stevens, Steven W. Silver, who is a partner in the firm.
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in... more
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The McCain campaign raised more than $10 million in the two and a half days after Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was named as the vice presidential running mate, bringing the total raised in the month of August to more than $47 million, campaign officials tell ABC News.
The final, official figures are expected to be reported in the next few days, but the amount appears to be a record for the McCain campaign, almost twice as much as it has raised in any other single month.
"We're still counting," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.
The McCain campaign raised more than $10 million in the two and a half days after... more
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Bristol Palin's pregnancy may be the ultimate teachable moment. It just might not be the lesson that John McCain intended.
My first thought on hearing the news was: What was Sarah Palin thinking? Assuming, as the campaign says, that she knew about her 17-year-old's pregnancy and informed McCain in advance, how could she expose her daughter to the inevitable spotlight that Palin's vice presidential nomination would bring?
The unwed mother -- or at least, the not-yet-wed mother -- has become a more common (this is bad) and less shameful (this is good) phenomenon in 21st-century America. It's the unusual celebrity (the Hollywood type, not the Obama type) who bothers to get hitched before getting pregnant. The baby bump has become a badge of honor, not a scarlet letter.
Yet no one feels good about a pregnant 17-year-old, whether it's Bristol Palin or Jamie Lynn Spears. As Sarah and Todd Palin put it with decided understatement yesterday, this will "make her grow up faster than we had ever planned."
And it will be that much more difficult in the media glare. "We ask the media to respect our daughter and (the father) Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the Palins said in their statement.
As a parent, I sympathize. But as a parent in the media, I also know that the Palins assumed this risk. Anyone who watched coverage of the Bush twins' barroom exploits knew that the avert-your-eyes stance toward candidates' children has its limits.
It's naive to imagine, in the anything-goes Internet era, that Palin's daughter's pregnancy would go unremarked upon. It's also mistaken, I think, to expect it. Like it or not, Bristol Palin's pregnancy is intertwined with an important public policy debate about which the two parties differ and on which Sarah Palin has been outspoken.
Which brings me to the teachable moment: What should teenagers be taught about sexual activity and contraception? By whom? What access should they have to condoms or other forms of birth control? Specifically, is abstinence-only education enough?
The 2008 Republican Party platform acknowledges that "each year, more than 3 million American teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases, causing emotional harm and serious health consequences, even death." It expresses support for "efforts to educate teens and parents about the health risks associated with early sexual activity and provide the tools needed to help teens make healthy choices."
Bristol Palin's pregnancy may be the ultimate teachable moment. It just might not... more
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Obama did exactly what he had to do.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine have been told by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign they will not be his vice presidential choice, NBC News reported on Friday quoting sources.
Speculation about Obama's choice has centered on Bayh, Kaine and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden. Other names in the mix include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Texas Rep. Chet Edwards.
Obama and his campaign have offered little information but the Illinois senator said earlier this week he had made up his mind about the choice.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine have been... more
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LENEXA, Kan. -- After weeks of speculation and days of intense rumors, the answer to who Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would name as his running mate may have come down to a bumper sticker printed in Lenexa.
KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported that the company, which specializes in political literature, has been printing Obama-Bayh material. That's Bayh as in U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. Word leaked out about the material as it was being printed up by Gill Studios of Lenexa. The Obama campaign had said it would make the announcement by text message on Friday.
Gill Studios, would not confirm information about the material. They would not deny it either. The company president would not comment when asked by Mahoney about the reports. But at least three sources close to the plant's operations reported the Obama-Bayh material was being produced.
Bayh has a reputation as a fiscally conservative Democrat. Bayh endorsed Hillary Clinton and it is believed that he could help the Obama ticket by delivering a key battleground state.
Obama has arranged a joint appearance for Saturday with his running mate at the state capitol in Springfield, Ill.LENEXA, Kan. -- After weeks of speculation and days of intense rumors, the answer to... more
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On Saturday, May 17, 1980, Cindy Lou Hensley married Navy Captain John McCain at the First United Methodist Church on Central Avenue in Phoenix, not far from the bride's childhood home. After the ceremony, the wedding entourage headed nearly three miles east to the Arizona Biltmore resort, a sprawling gray oasis designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright protégé in the 1920s. Guests fêted the couple in the resort's Aztec Room, an elegant, twelve-sided banquet hall with a vaulted, gold-leaf ceiling. The 25-year-old bride seemed impervious to the desert heat. She had flawless skin and wore a long-sleeved gown with a veil that extended to the floor.
The only crack in the day's elegant veneer came from the groom. A photograph of the couple, taken against the backdrop of First United's distinctive silver cross and stained-glass wall, shows him stuffed awkwardly into a black tuxedo, which rides high up front and hangs low in the rear. His nearly white hair slopes haphazardly off to the side, and his skin is splotchy and red.
A celebrated aviator and POW, McCain was then the Navy's chief lobbyist to the U.S. Senate. Two of his groomsmen were friends he'd acquired on the job--the young Maine Senator Bill Cohen and Senator Gary Hart of Colorado. It was the type of rarefied company that would normally have turned heads at a provincial wedding. But, over the course of the day, it gradually dawned on Cohen that the bride's family was the main attraction. Cindy's father, Jim, was one of the most successful businessmen in the state--the owner of its largest Anheuser-Busch distributorship. The wedding of his daughter was a bona fide social event. "The Hensley family was very prominent," Cohen recently told me. "Having Gary and I there--it may have impressed a few people, but it didn't make an impact. . . . We were walk-ons."
There was, as it happens, one small incident that hinted at this dynamic. At the climax of the wedding ceremony, with everyone looking on, the pastor prepared to present the new couple: "I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. . . ."--at which point there was an awkward pause. "He stopped, he obviously didn't remember," recalls David Frazer, who was then Jim Hensley's corporate lawyer. Finally, mercifully, someone from the wedding party interjected: "John McCain."
As Cindy McCain faithfully shadows her husband in his quest for the presidency, it's hard to imagine that she was once the senior member of their partnership. Looking back, McCain's steady march from admiral's son to war hero to White House contender seems almost preordained--certainly unrelated to the brittle blond cipher at his side. Cindy brings to mind the political wives of yore--a perpetually demure and deferential presence. All the more so in an age of Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama.
***Read More***
On Saturday, May 17, 1980, Cindy Lou Hensley married Navy Captain John McCain at the... more
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McCain has caught up to Obama in the influential Pew poll.
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Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who is running as an independent for president, announced today that he will hold a rally during the Democratic National Convention to open the fall debates to other candidates.
"We need serious debate," Nader says in a web video. "It's time to open the debates to third-party candidates"
The Nader rally is scheduled for Aug. 27, the third day of the convention when the Democratic vice presidential nominee gives his or her acceptance speech.
Nader said that the two major parties are not fighting against corporate control of politics and the nation, and that the major party candidates won't discuss those issues during the debates.
So far, only Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have been invited to the three official debates: Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi, Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, and Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who is running as an independent for president,... more
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This week in politics: Obama has a new and strange problem.
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