Nader '55 holds pre-debate rally

Continuing his crusade for inclusion in the upcoming presidential debates, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader '55 staged a rally yesterday at Boston's Fleet Center that organizers estimate drew 12,000 people.

Attacking both major political parties for excluding him from the debates and accusing them of selling out to corporate interests, Nader emphasized the importance of the debates as a means to access voters.

"The keys to the gate to those tens of millions of Americans are held by the very two parties that small parties are trying to challenge," the third-party candidate told a cheering audience, according to Reuters.

Yesterday's rally — which carried a $10 ticket price — was the fourth such event held by the Nader campaign to protest the decision of the Commission on Presidential Debates to exclude both him and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan from its series of televised debates. The first of these debates will be held tomorrow night at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

The bipartisan commission, which has organized three 90-minute debates this month between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, said last week that Buchanan and Nader had failed to meet its criteria for participation in tomorrow's debate.

To participate in the debates, the commission determined, candidates' names must appear on enough state ballots to have a theoretical chance of winning a majority of the Electoral College votes, and they must average 15 percent support in five major national polls.

For weeks, Nader and Buchanan each have been at three percent or below in the polls, while Gore and Bush have been at 40 percent or above. Nader is on the ballot in 44 states, according to his campaign.

Nader's previous three rallies — in Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland, Ore. — drew crowds in excess of 10,000, according to Nader's campaign, despite the $10 admission charge.

In addition to these rallies, Nader has used a variety of outlets to challenge the debate commission's decision, claiming repeatedly that the exclusion of third-party candidates from the debate will hurt voters and undermine the democratic process.

Earlier yesterday, Nader and Buchanan paired up on NBC's "Meet the Press" in a sort of mini-debate, during which they vehemently criticized the commission's decision.

Though apparently strange bedfellows, the pair — one a member of the conservative Christian right and the other an avowed liberal leftist — seemed remarkably friendly on the show.