NPR has a debate with Libertarian Presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson and Green Party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein; audio and transcript at the NPR site.
Opening statements:
Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party
“Country’s in deep doo-doo. Let’s stop the growing police state, let’s stop our military interventions, let’s balance the federal budget, let’s eliminate income tax, corporate tax, let’s abolish the IRS, let’s replace all that with one federal consumption tax — that will create tens of millions of jobs in a zero-corporate tax rate environment.”
Jill Stein, Green Party
“Well, we are in crisis. We’re loosing our jobs, decent wages, our homes, affordable health care and higher education; civil liberties are under attack and the climate’s in meltdown. The wealthy few are doing better than ever, and the political establishment’s making it worse, imposing austerity on everyday people while they squander trillions on wars, Wall Street bailouts and tax breaks for the wealthy.
“A vote for me is a vote for the solutions that we need for jobs, not corporate tax breaks, for health care as a human right, public higher education that’s free, ending student debt, and downsizing the military to pay for it.”
The short debate – 11 and a half minutes – then goes on to cover answers from each candidate about the economy, health care and role of government before ending with these closing statements:
Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party
“Whether you vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, I’m going to offer up a couple predictions. One is we’re going to continue to have a heightened police state in this country. The other is that we’re going to find ourselves in a continued state of military intervention; we are at continuous war with everyone. And then, lastly, we’re going to find ourselves — regardless of which two of these guys gets elected — we’re going to find ourselves continuing to borrow and spend money in ways that are absolutely unsustainable and if we don’t get control of this, we are going to collapse as a country. We are not immune from the mathematics of continuing to borrow and print money to the tune of 43 cents out of every dollar we spend.”
Jill Stein, Green Party
“Well, I agree with Gary that we are really headed in the wrong direction – and in fact, we are accelerating in the wrong direction under both parties. And in fact, Barack Obama has basically embraced most of the key policies of George Bush on the bailouts for Wall Street, the layoffs for Main Street, the expanding free trade agreements that offshore our jobs and undermine wages at home; the expanding wars, the attack on our civil liberties, drill-baby-drill on the climate, you name it. We’re going in the wrong direction. We need a president — we need a political party, that is of, by and for the people. If you go into the voting booth, and you cast a vote for either Wall Street-sponsored candidate, you are giving them a mandate for four more years of the same.”
There have now been several alternative party debates, including Huffington Post Live: Gary Johnson, Rocky Anderson and Andre Barnett, Democracy Now!: Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson, and coming up on October 23, Free and Equal with Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Virgil Goode and Rocky Anderson.
H/T: Steven Berson in this month’s IPR Open Thread.
Excellent question. I’m not finding much campaign news, even aside from non-participation in debates that welcome Rocky Anderson and Andre Barnett (so would presumably welcome him as well, as he is on the ballot in more states, even with all the ballot access failures he had) …and I’ve been looking.
Anyone have some news tips about the Goode campaign? Speeches, news articles, you name it.
Either was a good decision–and a tough call prior to the actual appearance/debate.
Where IS Goode?
Polls show otherwise, in this election as well as in past elections, which is why I think it was a mistake.
If Gary Johnson passed on the Democracy Now debate in favor of an appearance on Neil Cavuto, I think we can stipulate that his suggestion that he appeals to Dems and much as Repubs can be dismissed. I think appearing on Fox over Democracy now was the right choice for Johnson because there is no way that the reliable left leaning voters will vote for Johnson, especially if the race tightens
yep, every part of that is correct.
Paulie –
I’m wondering whether a factor in GJ choosing to do his own Google Hangout rather than join the Democracy Now broadcast had a good bit to do with the fact that he also had an interview with the Neil Cavuto Show on Fox Business Channel scheduled at 11:00pm that night and that if he had done the Democracy Now broadcast he would have had to miss that. So I think it’s possible the GJ campaign thought a short segment on Fox coupled with his own comments was more valuable than a long shared debate on Democracy Now. My own personal opinion is that he probably should have just done the Democracy Now broadcast – but it’s easy to armchair quarterback these things after they’ve happened – but not so easy to figure these things out on the fly.
We’re losing our jobs*
Not loosing.
Speaking of which, why is he not taking advantage of these debates? Rocky Anderson, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are at 3 of 4 each that I know of. Virgil Goode hasn’t been in any yet and is only scheduled for one, which would put him on par with Andre Barnett (on the ballot in one state).
and then there’s Virgil Goode …
Both happened at the same time.
For Johnson’s live reactions see
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2012/10/video-gary-johnson-responds-live-to-obama-and-romney/
Google hangout during the Obama/Romney debate? Or just a random one? Was the Democracy Now debate a parallel debate?
It’s good to see him participating in the HuffPo, NPR and Free and Equal debates though.
Was Johnson excluded from the Democracy Now one, or just couldn’t commit?
He was invited but chose to have his google hangout response instead, which I think was a mistake.
The Democracy Now! debate was much better production value and got a lot more viewers.
It’s great that strong alternate media sources are hosting such debates. Was Johnson excluded from the Democracy Now one, or just couldn’t commit?
HuffPo and NPR are decent target audiences.