Nader Tries to Crash Debate
— -- Police blocked Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader as he tried to get his way into the Bush-Gore debate in Boston. “I didn’t expect they would be so crude and so stupid,” Nader said
ABCNEWS.comBOSTON, Oct. 4— Green Party presidential candidate nominee Ralph Nader, who was excluded from the first debate, was turned away at the door as he tried to enter the first face-off of the two major party candidates.
Nader, who took the subway to the debate site, had received a ticket to watch the debate at the University of Massachusetts-Boston as a gift from Todd Tavares, a 21-year-old Northeastern University student.
Upon arrival at the debate site, Nader was greeted by a debate commission official and three police officers.
“It’s already been decided that whether or not you have a ticket you are not welcome in the debate,” John Bezeris, a representative of the debate commission, told Nader. The commission had excluded all but Democratic and Republican candidates.
“I didn’t expect they would be so crude and so stupid,” Nader said after being turned away. “This is the kind of creeping tyranny that has turned away so many voters from the electoral process.”
Unlikely Voters
Former talk show host and current Nader supporter Phil Donahue told Good Morning America this morning that the polls establishing eligibility for the debates are skewed against Nader’s supporters. Political polls usually survey “likely voters.”
“You have to have 15 percent in about five polls in order to be entered into the debate according to the commission,” he said. “We know our base would be significantly within the vast community of nonvoters. They’re not being questioned by the polls.”
With Nader at between three and six percent according to polls of likely voters, Donahue said his candidate will provide a surprise on election day, even if he may not make it to the debates by the official polls.
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