: http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/25/is-2016-the-year-of-campaigning-dangerously/ ----------------------------------------------------
> >>> >>> Carly Fiorina beats Hillary Clinton in a Quinnipiac poll >>> <http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2283> >>> released >>> Thuraday, 44-43%, demonstrating the power of open primary debates, where >>> Fiorina's performance launched her from the early "kiddie" event of the >>> first GOP debate to prime time for the second Republican face off. >>> Fiorina, like Dr. Ben Carson before her, is slowly catching up to front >>> runner Donald Trump, and like Trump she is beginning to get a lot of earned >>> media, including appearances on both cable news and late night talk >>> shows >>> <http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2015/09/22/carly-fiorina-sings-tonight-show-sot-ath.cnn>. >>> Meanwhile Hillary Clinton continues to flail in the polls, seesawing with >>> Sanders week by week as to who wins Iowa and New Hampshire, the first >>> states to hold primaries, and with Sanders and an as yet unannounced Joe >>> Biden together catching up to her nationally. >>> >>> >>> It's the year of the outsider, the commentariat tells us. >>> >>> >>> But that may prove true in more ways than they think. >>> >>> >>> Since very few straw polls, and no primaries or caucuses, have happened >>> yet, debates are taking center stage in election coverage. Democrats had >>> denigrated the GOP for its "clown car" of almost 20 contenders, and FOX and >>> CNN were forced by logistics to split GOP debates into a prime time event >>> for people getting over 2-3% in polls, and a junior varsity debate earlier >>> - though the prime time debate itself has had 10 or 11 candidates, >>> prompting some Libertarian wags to say they hope the GOP will still favor >>> having more than only two candidates after the primary selection process is >>> over. >>> >>> >>> Meanwhile the Democratic National Committee is facing rebellion, having >>> decided to support, for now, the coronation of Hillary Clinton, by cutting >>> debates back from the 28 it held in 2008 to only 6 for the 2016 primary >>> season. The Democratic group AllowDebate, >>> <https://www.facebook.com/AllowDebate> organized by young progressive >>> Democrats sometimes supporting Senator Bernie Sanders or former Governor >>> Martin O'Malley, have been heckling DNC chairwoman Congresswoman Debbie >>> Wasserman >>> <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/19/crowd-at-democratic-event-shouts-over-wasserman-schultz-more-debates/>Schultz >>> whenever she speaks in public. The plot doesn't seem to have helped >>> Hillary much. >>> >>> >>> The DNC plan was to restrict debates to only 6 "sanctioned" >>> <http://www.democrats.org/post/dnc-to-sanction-six-presidential-primary-debates> >>> debates between Democrats. If you are a Democratic candidate - Harvard >>> professor Lawrence Lessig, Senator Bernie Sanders, Governor O'Malley, >>> former Senator Jim Web, former Senator Lincoln Chafee, Vice President Joe >>> Biden - and you participate in an outside primary debate between Democrats, >>> Debbie Wasserman Schultz will block you from the 6 nationally televised and >>> sanctioned debates. With no television exposure, your chance of competing >>> with Queen Hillary is much diminished. >>> >>> >>> But what if you speak somewhere else? All the candidates do that every >>> week. And what if the speaking event *is* a debate - just *not* with >>> other Democrats? A former local Ohio television journalist, Ben Swann, >>> with Ron Paulish predilections and a new media platform, claims to be >>> "actively >>> in dialogue with both candidates," >>> <http://polls.truthinmedia.com/2015/09/21/petition-a-joint-town-hall-with-rand-paul-and-bernie-sanders/?> >>> Senator >>> Rand Paul and Senator Bernie Sanders, to have a libertarian-leaning >>> capitalist versus democratic socialist debate, before the GOP or the >>> Democrats have even finished selecting a nominee. Technically it won't be >>> a debate, but a Townhall, probably in New Hampshire, with Paul and Sanders >>> both speaking, in October or November. Both of these candidates could >>> profit from the coverage (Rand Paul seems the more eager currently), >>> helping them in their own ongoing respective primaries as well as with >>> fundraising and earned media. If Swann pulls off this event, it's hard to >>> believe other venues, including the exploding number of new media >>> platforms, won't copy it, with debates featuring Senator Ted Cruz against >>> Governor O'Malley, etc. They might not be carried on TV live, but clips of >>> any such debates will be replayed the next day, and they will earn the >>> debaters interviews and other coverage. >>> >>> >>> Besides AllowDebate and the possibility of a Paul/Sanders debate, a >>> third threat to an establishment controlled election is a law suit to be >>> filed September 29th in federal court by former New Mexico Governor Gary >>> Johnson, against the Commission on Presidential Debates >>> <http://www.debates.org/>. Johnson, who left the GOP in to win the >>> nomination >>> of the Libertarian Party in 2012 >>> <http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/04/30/meet-libertarian-v-p-candidate-jim-gray/>, >>> is best known recently for a humorous stunt in March at CPAC2015 where he >>> mimed >>> cardiac arrest >>> <http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/02/26/gary-johnson-pretends-heart-attack.cnn>while >>> in a debate with a woman who claimed marijuana increases the risk of heart >>> attack. Since then he's become the CEO of a West Coast marijuana company >>> and seems to plan on trying to get the Libertarian Party nomination again >>> for 2016. (The Libertarians have their own herd of candidates, mainly >>> unknowns even in Libertarian Party circles, with the next best known >>> candidate - after Johnson - being 34 year old Austin Petersen >>> <http://www.austinpetersen2016.com/>, a former producer for Judge >>> Andrew Napolitano's FoxBusiness show *FreedomWatch*. Petersen, who >>> recently moved back from Washington, D.C. to his hometown of Peculiar, >>> Missouri, to launch his campaign, will be the Constitutionally required 35 >>> years old before the election.) >>> >>> >>> But Johnson's advisers (who included former Trump guru Roger Stone >>> <http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a15556/roger-stone-interview-rnc-2012-12175013/> >>> back >>> in 2012) and campaign staff say he is unlikely to be the sacrificial victim >>> for a quixotic Libertarian campaign unless the Libertarians are assured at >>> least the possibility of being in the post-primary presidential debates. >>> Hence Johnson's law suit. >>> >>> >>> Estimated to run up $800,000 in legal bills, the suit has been put >>> together by Reagan administration Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein >>> <http://www.brucefeinlaw.com/accomplishments/>, whose work on opening >>> up political debate includes getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine - an FCC >>> policy which had the result of coercing broadcasters into presenting only >>> two centrist viewpoints, liberal Democrats and Rockefeller, establishment, >>> Republicans. Fein's Johnson suit will be an anti-trust suit, alleging that >>> the Commission on Presidential Debates, populated and controlled by only >>> establishment Democrat and Republican Party operatives, limits the >>> candidates allowed to debate only to the nominees of those two parties - >>> even if other candidates like Libertarians or Greens have managed the >>> extremely difficult task of being on the majority of state ballots so they >>> could earn enough Electoral College votes to win an election if voters knew >>> they were running and considered them viable because they were presented in >>> the same way on television and in the debates as the GOP and Democratic >>> candidates. Fein further alleges that the Debate Commission is a >>> *business* in restraint of trade, since the Republican and Democratic >>> consultant class raise billions of dollars now to pay themselves during the >>> campaign season, and raising the money is dependent on excluding >>> independent competition for donor dollars. >>> >>> >>> So though most might still think it unlikely, Courts may be deciding >>> within a year whether the Presidential Debates will for the first time >>> include a Libertarian or a Green. And as many Americans have griped in the >>> past few years, what SCOTUS or the other courts will do may not be what >>> you'd expect. And in recent years, some of the more presentable >>> Libertarian candidates - like Robert Sarvis, who ran for Governor in >>> Virginia in 2013 - have been getting 5% of the vote, instead of their >>> traditional 1-2%, even while spending much less dollars-per-vote than >>> Democrats or Republicans, who often spend $10-20 for each vote they receive. >>> >>> >>> (Johnson's campaign released a press advisory today listing the other >>> people joining him on the suit from various third parties, but it is >>> embargoed until tomorrow morning. You can pretty much guess though.) >>> >>> >>> The two party duopoly is somewhat baked into the American electoral >>> system, unlike European parliamentary systems. The U.S. has >>> winner-take-all jurisdictions usually featuring two candidates, one of >>> whom, usually a Democrat, will tax Americans and regulate away their >>> choices and opportunities to buy the votes of organized interest groups >>> like government sector unions and bailed out banks (Romney's 47% rightly >>> understood), and his or her usually Republican opponent, who often only >>> says he won't do it as much or as quickly. But the two party system has >>> been suffering as of late, with 40% of voters >>> <http://www.livescience.com/24561-voter-turnout-low.html> deciding not >>> to vote for either of its candidates, with Governor Sarah Palin >>> denouncing the consultant class >>> <http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2013/03/16/palin-furlough-the-consultants/>, >>> with pundit Dick Morris going kersplat >>> <http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/07/dick-morris-explains-why-was-wrong-about-2012-election.html> >>> in >>> 2012 with his predictions that Romney would win, and Karl Rove perhaps >>> only hanging >>> <http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/09/donald-trump-karl-rove-spent-430-million-and-didnt-win-one-race/>, >>> according to Trump, on by a few fingers. >>> >>> >>> It's interesting that all of these things - outsiders like Carson, >>> Trump, and Fiorina, who can set up their own fundraising websites, rank and >>> file Democrats who can tweet flash mob locations to heckle Chairwoman >>> Wasserman Schultz, new media journalists who can contemplate sponsoring a >>> non-sanctioned bipartisan debate, and even Governor Johnson's fundraising >>> for an anti-trust law suit - are greatly enhanced by the internet and >>> social media. The two party system - and the ruling cabals of consultants >>> and the political class within those two parties - has long been protected >>> by ballot access laws keeping independents off the ballots, the oligopoly >>> of a few TV networks and newspapers or press services deciding who can be >>> covered, and the party machinery deciding who will get its pre-organized >>> volunteers. Just as Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, SilkRoad, Uber, Lyft and >>> other internet based businesses have been wiping out older models, 2016 may >>> be the year that technological change finally begins to break or transform >>> the two party monopoly. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> >> -- -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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