In a new press release from the Barr campaign he calls for weekly debates with Obama and McCain.
Bob Barr Welcomes Election Contest with Barack Obama and John McCain, Urges Weekly Debates
Atlanta, GA — Tonight the Democratic Party effectively finished its nomination process, choosing Sen. Barack Obama as its presidential candidate. Sen. Hillary Clinton fought long and well, helping spur a record voter turnout on the Democratic side. In most any other year she would have been her party’s standard-bearer, but she fell short against Sen. Obama, perhaps the Democrats’ most eloquent proponent of liberalism.
Sen. John McCain defeated his leading opponents even earlier to become the presumptive Republican nominee. Sen. McCain has a distinguished career, beginning with his military service during the Vietnam War. He well represents a Republican Party that has become an advocate of slightly smaller big government at home and aggressive war-making abroad.
I, and the Libertarian Party, offer a very different alternative to the American people: limited, constitutional government dedicated to protecting individual liberty. I look forward to a vigorous contest this fall and meeting my fellow candidates to debate the many important issues facing our nation.
But there is no need to limit the debates to the usual handful of carefully choreographed contests.
In congratulatory letters I am sending, I challenge Senators Obama and McCain to meet me in weekly debate in cities across America with just the candidates and a moderator to keep order. Let us argue the issues, after which the American people can make their decision on Election Day. Surely the citizens of the greatest nation on earth deserve no less.
At Reason Magazine headquarters yesterday four candidates who can potentially carry the Ron Paul message onward sat down for a debate. All participants except for one are Libertarian Presidential candidates. The exception was Vern McKinley, who is running for Congress in Virginia’s 10th District against Frank Wolf.
What was interesting to me as evidenced in the embedded video (thanks to Reason.tv) below is that Vern McKinley almost sounds more libertarian than some of the Libertarian candidates, most notably, Wayne Allyn Root. Check out the video below and realize it is time to figure out who you are going to support in the general election for President in lieu of Ron Paul. Writing in Ron Paul may make you feel good, but it will go nowhere. At least in Vern McKinley’s case you know you can support him as a “Ron Paul Republican”.
Earlier this week Amit Singh participated in a debate at George Mason University with his GOP primary opponent Mark Ellmore. Singh was interviewed earlier this year by us at Liberty Maven and earned our endorsement. The debate only reinforced our support for Singh. Probably the most interesting portion of the debate is when Ellmore claims he is a “Republican like… Ron Paul“. The video is in two parts. The first is about an hour. The second is about 30 minutes.
This is an interesting report from the New York Times on Ron Paul. Included in the report is an interesting comment from Carl Cameron, the FOX News reporter who asked Ron Paul the “electability” question during the Myrtle Beach debate.
According to the MTV/MySpace forum site both Ron Paul and Barack Obama are now confirmed for participation. Apparently, the format of the forum allows for floor time alone for each candidate for 15-20 minutes. The forum begins at 6pm Eastern time on Saturday. Interestingly the two GOP front runners McCain and Romney have yet to confirm participation. As it stands now Obama, Clinton, Huckabee, and Paul are the only confirmed participants.
It will be broadcast live on MTV as well as online.
According to a story at MTV Ron Paul is expected to participate in the “Closing Arguments” forum sponsored by MTV and MySpace this Saturday.
Three days before Super Tuesday, when 23 states hold their presidential-nomination primaries or caucuses, MTV and MySpace will host some of the remaining Democratic and Republican candidates in a “Super” edition of the ongoing MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue series.
At 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, “Closing Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue” will be broadcast live from the MTV studios in New York. Senator Hillary Clinton, one of the two Democratic front-runners, and former Governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican candidate, have already been confirmed for the forum, the latest in a collaborative series between MTV and MySpace that has so far hosted events with Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, as well as former Senator John Edwards.
Obama and Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican candidate, are expected to announce their participation in the event on Thursday.
Ron Paul’s invitation can be attributed to the work of his grassroots supporters after they emailed and called MTV execs about including him.
Ron Paul was interviewed immediately following the debate tonight. It was captured here and uploaded to YouTube by user ‘luis9343′. Good interview. The video comes on at about 38 seconds in.
The debate tonight was unfair as usual. It was pretty unfair to Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. At one point Ron Paul requested more time to answer a previous question on liberalism vs. conservatism. The moderator, Anderson Cooper, promised he would get a chance to address that in 2 questions. That chance never came as they went on other topics. As usual, Ron Paul had some glowing moments though he still was the teacher, not the sound bite man. That is good for those of us who already support him, but to gain new votes he needs to show this other side, in my opinion. Below are the 7 questions Ron Paul received during the debate.
Q1 - Are we better off now?
Q2 - States Rights
Q3 - Will Huckabee’s Highway idea stimulate the economy?
Q4 - Would you have appointed Justice O’Conner?
Q5 - Do you agree with McCain’s 100 years war strategy?
Liberty Maven
