Voters Want Barr, Nader in Debates

August 16, 6:06 PMCongress ExaminerIgor Derysh

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With so much rhetoric about "change" in Washington throughout the campaign, voters have jumped on board asking for change in the campaign itself.

According to a new Zogby poll, more than half of all likely voters would like to see independent Libertarian candidate Bob Barr be allowed to participate in the Presidential debates and nearly half of likely voters want independent candidate Ralph Nader there as well.

55% of likely voters, both Democrat and Republican, said that they would want to see Bob Barr featured in the debates alongside Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain.

Among independent voters, 69% favored Barr's inclusion in the debates.

Meanwhile, 45% of likely voters said that they would like to see five time Presidential candidate Ralph Nader be allowed to attend the debates.

59% of independent voters stated that they want to see the debate commission allow Nader into the debates.

A very important fact in these numbers is that younger voters were more likely to favor the inclusion of the two independent candidates into the debates, demonstrating a sort of changing of the guard as younger voters are not as content with the status quo two candidate system.

According to Commission of Presidential Debates rules, candidates must qualify on enough states' ballots to have a mathematical chance at winning a majority of electoral college votes and must have at least 15% support in public opinion polls in order to be allowed to participate in the debates.

Bob Barr, currently showing 6% support nationally, which could pose a huge problem for John McCain, is a former Republican Congressman from Georgia who was one of the leaders in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in the late 90's.

Ralph Nader, currently polling at 2% nationally, has run for President on four previous occasions and is blamed by many for causing Al Gore the 2000 election when Al Gore lost by less than 600 votes in Florida while Nader took in nearly 100,000 votes.

Asking the Barr and Nader be allowed into the debates would be a good way for Barack Obama to stand behind his "change" rhetoric.