OntheWilderSide

hofstra-on campus wrap-up : our professor commentator is giving mccain too much of the benefit of the doubt. and when I raised an open the debates issue he was rude and factually wrong. first he said that not since anserson was a third party candidate in the debate. he forgot perot. then I mentioned cynthia mckinney and he said “well if she was polling at 20 percent like perot. I will do a fact check, but ian thinks that perot was not polling that high until the bump of the debate. [ISW after the fact: Polling is a false consideration. Being on enough ballots is the only consideration.  Besides which Perot polled the same in 1992 and 1996, but was included in the debates in 1992 and excluded in 1996 at the whim of the Democratic and Republican candidates.] also our commentator said hofstra had no control over debate, only the commission. but hofstra could have said no. the league of woman voters stopped hosting debates on principle. also, hofstra could have used the bully pulpit to ask for all candidate participation. – KW

Commentary from Roger Snyder:

Just prior to the debates, Perot received 7-9% support in nationwide polls. It is likely that the debates played a significant role in his ultimate receipt of 19% of the popular vote.

However, a much earlier poll, before the nominations, had Perot in the lead. This is significant in that a third party candidate lead in polling, but early polls are very volatile, and he lost the lead a short time later.

Exit polls showed that Ross Perot drew 38% of his vote from Bush, and 38% of his vote from Clinton, while the rest of his voters would have stayed home in his absence on the ballot.

Filed under: cynthia mckinney, debate, Green Party Websites, hofstra, president