By Scott Mansfield

Tuesday the 23rd saw a landmark occasion for long-shots and independents (an oftentimes mutually exclusive combination) when a third party debate moderated by Larry King took place at the Hilton in downtown Chicago. The candidates spotlighted at this occasion were Jill Stein of the Green Party, Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party, Rocky Anderson for the Justice Party, and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. This debate had none of the pomp of the three front-runner debates.

Even Joe Biden’s blatant amusement over Paul Ryan’s statements during the VP debate pales in comparison to the informality of this one. King had already gotten two questions before he was reminded to allow the candidates to make their opening statements. His general malaise was juxtaposed with the unabashed delight of independent candidates finally having media exposure together. The allowance of audience reactions did not help to create an air of professionalism—nor did King’s predilection for calling the candidates by their first names rather than professional titles.

In Governor Romney and President Obama’s debates only the most inflammatory or occasionally cute remarks might spark a quiet murmuring from the crowd but this debate saw its proponents whooping and cheering at calls for legalization of marijuana and nullification of student debt. King was much more stringent than the moderators in the front-runner debates, however, keeping strict count on minutes and curtailing diatribes where Obama and Romney chronically overflowed.

Long-Shots and Independents

This debate focused on the independents striving to show that they are against the corporation-wooing military-industrialism of their mainstream rivals. Gary Johnson jokingly suggested that “candidates should be required to wear NASCAR like jackets” with sponsorship patches on them. Virgil Goode mirrored these sentiments in decrying the influence of super PACs and of big money in politics after invoking images of the mythic revolutionary war and the overthrowing of the, “We need to throw the PACs out now and vote for third parties.”

It’s a curious conundrum that the backing which is required to get a real shot at the White House is constantly out of reach for these candidates whom claim that it is the source of all the problems with our political system. That being said, the candidates do spend much less of their time attacking and defending against each other and are more focused on promoting their views particularly in showing how they are different from the usual choices.

Former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, running for the Libertarian Party, put to a fine point the purpose of this debate by saying, “Wasting your vote is voting for somebody you don’t believe in.” Jill Stein’s closing remarks focused on the idea of attempting to capture the attention of the undecided and non-participatory voter- aged people in the country: “There are 90 million voters who aren’t coming out to this election. They are saying ‘no’ to politics as usual…imagine if we got out word to those 90 million voters that they actually have a variety of choices.”

One important thing that this debate does prove is that, even with the limited viewership it had, the digital world of multimedia access and self publishing has extended to these long shots a hope of reaching more people than ever, especially with a big name moderator, albeit a sleepy one in this case. The YouTube viewer counts on most copies of this debate number less than 50,000 whereas their front-runner debates number in the millions. Given this is only one forum in which to view these debates it is an important one, especially given this third party debate was taking place in the late afternoon before many people were home to view it. These candidates can only hope that in the future such forums will continue to bring increasing access to opposing views.
Long-Shots and Independents