Devil505 wrote:jpete wrote:The R's and D's got together and wrote the rules for the Debate Committee to exclude any third parties. The game is rigged so that we have one more choice than Russia. And there is less and less difference between the two every day.
I'm not a conspiracy buff. I believe:
1. Oswald alone killed JFK
2. SS alone killed RFK
3. JER alone killed MLK
4. We landed on the Moon
5. There is no Loch Ness Monster or Alien bodies in the U.S. Southwest
6. Al Quieda was responsible for 9/11
7. FDR
did not know that Pearl Harbor would be attacked.
8. There is a huge difference between the Democratic & the Republican parties.....Probably the biggest difference in my lifetime & you can't seriously argue the election results don't show that most American voters agree with me & not you.
It's not a "conspiracy" you dolt! A term, by the way, people use when they can't produce a valid argument.
Prior to 1988, presidential debates were organized by the League of Women Voters. In 1987, the R's and D's got together and formed the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Ross Perot bought his way in during the 1992 campaign but since 1988, you haven't seen a debate that wasn't scripted from end to end.
October 3, 1988
LEAGUE REFUSES TO "HELP PERPETRATE A FRAUD"
WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FROM FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
WASHINGTON, DC —"The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter," League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.
"It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions," Neuman said. "The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on
September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns' agreement was negotiated "behind closed doors" and vas presented to the League as "a done deal," she said, its 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation.
Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called "outrageous" the campaigns' demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.
"The campaigns' agreement is a closed-door masterpiece," Neuman said. "Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates' organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands."
Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments.
"On the threshold of a new millenium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate," Neuman said. "Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century."
Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to "rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate."
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates. The organization, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) corporation, sponsored all the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.
http://www.debates.org/index.htmlhttp://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Sect ... entID=7777
