Nader demands to debate Bush and Kerry on ignored issues : AZ IMC

While President George Bush and Senator John Kerry dueled it out on national television, Independent Candidate for President Ralph Nader was once again forbidden from participating in Wednesday’s presidential debate.

“We need a real debate in our country over the over the Iraq war,” Nader said three hours before the debate at a press conference near ASU campus. “Kerry and Bush are both for intensifying the war. I want to debate these two gentlemen.”

The Nader-Camejo campaign said they support a rapid and responsible withdrawal from Iraq with the introduction of neutral peacekeeping force, supervised elections and humanitarian assistance.

“George Bush hasn’t said anything about the skyrocketing gas and home heating prices. He does not care about the impact of these prices on small businesses and truckers. His administration is marinated in oil,” Nader described.

Nader criticized the Commission on Presidential Debates which is run by the democratic and Republican parties. “In 2000, we worked to reform the process with the creation of a citizen debate commission.”

Joking about not being able to join the debates, Nader suggested he could crawl through the ventilation ducts network inside Gammage Auditorium, putting on a cape and flying down onto the debate stage and land between Kerry and Bush.

On the serious side, Nader said that without a Marine division it would not be possible to break into the two-party debate design. “I am an underdog candidate because the two parties have rigged the system,” Nader said.

“Like competition is healthy for the marketplace, we need more voices for choices,” Nader said.

Describing domestic issues, Nader challenged his opponents to talk about real solutions. “There is no debate on real health care,” Nader challenged. Nader supports a single-payer health care plan which would replace the private health insurance industry. “There is no debate between Bush and Kerry about a living wage,” Nader said. “Forty-seven million Americans work full-time making Wal-Mart wages.”

Nader has been fighting for the consumer for decades, criticizing corporate personhood and power in the political process. “There is no debate on the corporate crime wave in this country by corporate power, money and consulting. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have a plan to crack down on corporate crime, defraud and abuse that is harming the environment and defrauding the consumer,” Nader said.

“There is no debate on corporate globalization, NAFTA and WTO style that is sidestepping our democracy, our courts and our regulatory agencies and imposing the rule of global corporatism,” Nader added.

Nader expressed a need for political reform to a multi-party system. “In future elections, we have to be more intolerant of political bigotry by the two parties who think they own the American voters who think they are entitled to the American voters votes without having to earn them,” Nader said.