 |
|
|
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
-What Happened in 1988?
-What Happened in 1992? -What Happened in 1996? -What Happened in 2000? -What Happened in 2004? -2008: 15 Percent Barrier 
|
What Happened in 2000?The CPD received a barrage of criticism due to Perot's exclusion, and Fahrenkopf and Kirk decided to change the criteria to a more objective threshold. But Professor Neustadt, chair of the Advisory Committee, cautioned, "If the new criteria make it easier for more than two candidates to get into the debates, the major-party nominees may just refuse to participate, and then you've lost your best tool for informing the public." Hoping to neutralize accusations of partisanship while still ensuring third-party exclusion, on January 6, 2000, the CPD announced that third-party candidates would have to reach 15 percent in pre-debate polls to receive an invitation to the debates.The advantage of the 2000 criterion is that it forces some transparency - third party participation is less subject to the backdoor manipulations of Republicans and Democrats. But exclusion had merely been shifted from behind-the-scenes negotiation to an overt numerical obstacle. In 2000, five third-party candidates were on enough state ballots to win an electoral college majority. Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan attracted more media coverage and popular support than the other third-party challengers, and a clear majority of voters wanted them in the debates. How would the major parties exclude such viable third-party candidates without infuriating voters? The 15 percent threshold meant that the major party candidates, Al Gore and George W. Bush, didn't even have to negotiate the issue. With Nader and Buchanan on the sidelines, Gore and Bush participated in three presidential debates. The dreary events, which the public perceived as pitting a smiling bumbler against an arrogant policy-wonk, attracted the smallest audience in the history of televised presidential debates. The only real excitement took place outside the debate hall, where helicopters swarmed over 12,000 protesters outraged with third party exclusion and where Ralph Nader was barred from entering a television viewing room even though he had a ticket. John Vezeris, a representative of the CPD, told Nader, "It's already been decided that whether or not you have a ticket you are not welcome." Related Links
|
