A one-man debate in NY?

You'll notice that the televised presidential debates only have two candidates participating even though there are a number of other national candidates.

The debates are run by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which is a bipartisan (not non-partisan) organization. Its two co-chairs are a former Democratic National Committee Chairman and a former Republican National Committee Chairman. Its sole honorary chairmen are the three living former presidents.

The commission only invites candidates to the debates who are constitutionally eligible to be president and who are on enough ballots for it to be mathematically possible to win. Some of these candidates are Ralph Nader, Michael Badnarik and David Cobb.

But the reason those non-Democratic, non-Republican candidates are glossed over by this bipartisan commission is because of the third criteria, which limits participation to candidates who have demonstrated a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate, as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly-reported results. (From: CPD website)

Strangely enough, the US Senate candidates in my state will also debate. The participants will be Democratic incumbent Chuck Schumer, Republican Howard Mills and Conservative Marilyn O'Grady. It's a good thing that the arbitrary 15% in the mythical polls rule doesn't apply here in New York, because it wouldn't be much of a debate. Mills is at 13% in the most prominent poll and O'Grady at 9%.

I wonder how they'll manage. The yapping heads insist that a debate with more than two candidates necessarily leads to chaos (which must come as a surprise to voters in nearly every other country where party leaders' debates are held). The chattering class insists that any more than two candidates is "a distraction."

In reality, they think voters, who somehow manage to choose between 20 different brands of white bread at the supermarket, aren't mature enough to have more than two political choices pre-selected for them by the punditocracy.

If the sky doesn't collapse with the three-person NY US Senate debate, imagine the possibilities for presidential politics.