RocktheDebates has been asking each leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidate if he or she would participate in an inclusive general election debate, were he or she the nominee. Tommy Thompson dropped out of the Republican race on August 12. However, for the record, he gave a good response to the question on August 9. He said, “I’ll debate anybody. My brother ran as a Libertarian (for Governor of Wisconsin in 2002). I tried to talk him out of it…but he did…and he needed a chance to debate, but he didn’t get a chance to debate. He had a lot of ideas…I don’t think the framers of the Constitution wanted that (debate exclusion) to happen.” Thanks to Larry Reinsch and Belinda Lawler for this news.
It’s unfortunate but true that it takes an impact on someone you know personally to open your eyes to the problem. Most people don’t even think about this issue; they just accept the two-party myth because they don’t know any differently. When someone they know tries to run on a 3rd party, they finally get a small insight to how stacked the system is.
Publicity breeds name recognition…Name recognition breeds name familiarity…Name familiarity breeds votes. People should keep that in mind when others tell them it’s okay to exclude third party candidates from debates because they can’t win.
Who did Tommy endorse in that race?
Strange that Dondero (Rittberg) would support Ed Thompson. Thompson has endorsed Ron Paul based on Paul’s antiwar position.
Here is what Ed Thompson wrote to me last month when I asked him about his position on the war:
“My war stance is identical to Dr. Paul. Bring our troops home as quickly as possible. We should of never been there in the first place.”