Barr Calls for Debates with McCain, Obama: Include Libertarian Party, Nominee Demands

John McCain has proposed ten weekly town hall forums before the Democratic and Republican conventions convene. Barack Obama says he looks forward to several debates during the campaign. “The apparent willingness of both presidential contenders to break the mold and engage in an extended dialogue with the American people is a welcome change from the past,” observes Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

The principal problem in past presidential campaigns, however, was too few voices, not too few debates. Despite all of the shouting and campaign hoopla, “on most major issues the differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates pale compared to their similarities,” says Barr. Both favor a huge Leviathan state centered in Washington, prepared to regulate most every aspect of life across America and to intervene in most every foreign squabble overseas. “It is time for the American people to see a clash of ideas as well as of candidates,” Barr insists.

Rock-the-Debates has called for “free, open and inclusive debates” that include all candidates with a mathematical chance of being elected. Barr says he would be pleased to begin at New York’s Federal Hall next week, as Sen. McCain suggested, or at a later time, if preferred by Sen. Obama. “The critical issue is not place or format, but a willingness to engage in a rich, wide-ranging, and informative discussion that includes the American people.”

Our nation faces critical challenges in the years ahead. We can no longer accept “the tyranny of the status quo,” says Barr. The American people deserve to know that they have a real choice come November. “Let the debates begin!