Call for a non-partisan People's Presidential Debate Commission  ...1 of 4 >>
President's Day, Feb. 18, 2002.  Ralph Nader brought Pat Buchanan and Ron Crickenberger, political director of the Libertarian Party (not shown), together at a sparsely attended news conference to call for the creation of a non-partisan People's Presidential Debate Commission.  Theresa Amato, who was Nader 2000 campaign manager and is now president of Citizen Works follows.  Continuing his criticism of the "official-sounding" Commission on Presidential Debates, which has sponsored the debates since 1988 and is actually a non-profit corporation co-chaired by former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic parties, Nader said he will document the "overwhelming" case against the CPD in a major report to be released later this year.  He then plans to contact a variety of groups and foundations to go about forming the new organization.  Finally he will go to the mass media and encourage them to take the matter up as a free speech issue.  "The press hasn't done its job," he said.  Noting the absence of reporters from the Washington Post and the New York Times, Nader said, "They're not here today because they still don't get it."

Copyright © 2002  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.