The U.S. Establishment's Big Media and the Democratic Party's Obama campaign undemocratically excluded 2008 independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney from the 2008 televised presidential debates. One reason was because both the Big Media gatekeepers and the Obama campaign's media consultant realized that Nader and McKinney, if allowed to debate Barack Obama on U.S. television, would likely obtain the votes of many independent antiwar U.S. voters in closely-contested "battleground states."
In 2000, for example, over 117,000 voters in Ohio, over 103,000 voters in Pennsylvania, over 90,000 voters in Colorado, over 29,000 voters in Iowa, over 84,000 voters in Michigan, over 126,000 voters in Minnesota, over 38,000 voters in Missouri, over 22,000 voters in New Hampshire, over 21,000 voters in New Mexico, over 59,000 voters in Virginia, over 10,000 voters in West Virginia, over 94,000 voters in Wisconsin and over 97,000 voters in Florida voted for Ralph Nader--even though Nader was also excluded from the 2000 televised presidential debates.
In 1992, when an independent presidential candidate named Ross Perot was allowed to participate in the 1992 televised presidential debates, Perot ended up receiving:
over 1 million votes in Ohio;
over 900,000 votes in Pennsylvania;
over 360,000 votes in Colorado;
over 253,000 votes in Iowa;
over 824,000 votes in Michigan;
over 562,000 votes in Minnesota;
over 518,000 votes in Missouri;
over 121,000 votes in New Hampshire;
over 91,000 votes in New Mexico;
over 348,000 votes in Virginia;
over 108,000 votes in West Virginia;
over 544,000 votes in Wisconsin; and
over 1 million votes in Florida.
James and the Twenty-Seven Bicycles
14 years ago