11:30 PM: Just like the last debate we live blogged, these three candidates showed a diverse range of answers that are simply not seen in the mainstream debates. I thought all three candidates did well but Matt Gonzalez was by far the most impressive of the three. He showed genuine leadership abilities by remaining calm and collected at all times but still showing strong energy and belief in his ideas. He also showed creative answers that are also realistic and backed by evidence. Vote third party, power to the people, and goodnight everyone!
11:25 PM: In contrast, we hear a calm, collected but emphatic and energetic response from Matt Gonzalez. He thanks the other candidates for coming out and debating and states that even though they disagree on some points he believes that they could come together and have a rational discussion and come to a compromise. Gonazalez makes a great point that we must vote for principles, otherwise our principles get trampled on.
11:21 PM: My apologies for not covering Darrell Castle much but he needs more energy and more dynamic answers. “The constitution party is the best party”…that’s not a very good argument and does not convince me to vote for you Darrell.
11:19 PM: Here is the summary of WAR’s arguments, “government sucks”. I’m a rational anarchist and believe in limited government but WAR rails against government blindly. There are reasons why a government exists and we cannot solve all our problems but just getting rid of government.
11:14 PM: All of the candidates make great points that equal access is crucial to a democracy. Personally, I believe we need to institute Instant Run-Off Voting before the next set of elections. There are are too many restrictions to running for President, we should be encouraging more people to run for government positions, not setting up obstacles in front of them.
11:08 PM: WAR makes a great point that Obama and McCain turned in their applications in Texas late but were allowed on the ballot but if any third party candidate did the same they would not.
11:05 PM: Pretty lame question, of course all these candidates will think limiting ballot access is a detriment to true democracy.
11:00 PM: I agree with Castle that we should not tax income (as do Gonzalez and Root) and instead raise money via tariffs, sales tax and taxing negative externalities.
10:59 PM: WAR makes a good point that we should encourage people to work hard and taxing them too much would pass costs to consumers and encourage businesses to leave America but does not understand that taxing negative effects on society would allow us to raise tax revenues while giving companies an incentive to reduce pollution and other negatives.
10:51 PM: WAR is an idiot.
10:48 PM: Gonzalez comes out and says that Obama is not a socialist, he voted with the Republicans nearly half the time. The Republicans and Democrats are both corporatists, nothing more.
10:45 PM: War is against the bailout. Notes that the bill includes provisions for the IRS to setup undercover sting operations against US citizens. Also rants that McCain is a moderate republican and that Obama is a socialist.
10:40 PM: War and Castle are both fear mongering about the universal health care system. They continue to lament that government will only cause our health care system to collapse even though it’s already worse than many other industrial nations’ health care systems.
10:33 PM: Gonzalez comes out calm and collected, “people get together and form government to get collective benefits”. He states that 60% of the US health-care system is funded by the government already so when WAR states that our health-care system is the best he’s really saying the government does help. Gonzalez is in favor of non-profit administration that handles payments from the government for private health care.
10:30 PM: WAR makes no sense, he thinks government is the problem but he’s running for a government job. WTF?
10:24 PM: WAR wants clean air and clean water but not at the expense of jobs and higher energy prices. That’s quite a ridiculous statement. We need clean air and water to survive. We do not need cheap gas to survive. Castle wants to invest in nuclear energy as a possible permanent solution but does not rebut Gonzalez statement that nuclear energy produces toxic waste and causes cancer. Matt Gonzalez is clearly winning this debate by a lot right now.
10:21 PM: “We are not going to drill our way out of this problem” says Gonzalez, states that drilling will only minimally increase supply and is not a permanent solution.
10:20 PM: WAR proclaims that no matter the issue, government is not the solution but the problem. WAR states that ethanol is a perfect example of how government interference led to higher fuel and food prices. WAR is now laying on the fear rhetoric about taxing people out of our homes and that the answer to energy policy is to drill, drill, drill. I very, very, very much disagree with WAR here.
10:17 PM: Castle thinks we need to focus on energy independence and that doing so will also help us progress towards more environmentally friendly energy. Also says we should not have subsidies for private companies period.
10:15 PM: Matt Gonzalez speaks about removing subsidies for big oil companies (subsidies that Obama voted for). Also says that we need to remove the empty rhetoric about “clean” coal and “safe” nuclear and instead invest in solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energies.
10:13 PM: Some Obama supporter just started spamming the Justin.TV chat room…very immature and un-democratic. Ahem.
10:10 PM: Great, great, great point by Castle that we do not have to give up civil liberties in exchange for security. He said something along the lines of “These people fight us because we’re free so we have to give up our freedom so we can fight them.” Paraphrasing there but it’s a stellar point. Castle says we need accountability for the government and that we should not vote for people who trample our civil liberties.
10:07 PM: WAR is against the huge surveillance state we currently live in. All three of these candidates will agree here. Gonzalez speaks the truth that a big problem on 9/11 was the lack of communication between government agencies, not lack of surveillance of American citizens.
10:03 PM: Wow, Matt Gonzalez is highly impressive and speaks the truth by stating that winning a war in Afghanistan is highly unlikely and we should withdraw all troops, not just the ones in Iraq. Both Obama and McCain support expanding the war in Afghanistan.
10:01 PM: Castle states that we should not be sending foreign aid to other countries but focus on making ourselves stronger, which makes the world stronger.
10:00 PM: Matt Gonzalez makes a great point that Israel and Palestine both have rights and we should not be pro-Israel or pro-Palestine but pro-peace.
9:55 PM: Castle and Root agree that defense means we should focus on improving the defense of the American homeland, not attacking other countries or nation building.
9:53 PM: Rumors earlier in the Justin.TV chat room that Cynthia McKinney’s vice-presidential candidate Rosa Clemente is not attending this debate because McKinney is endorsing Barack Obama. Rumors seem to be unfounded but are interesting.
9:51 PM: Wow WAR is out of control! He claims he is Ron Paul on steroids. He says the difference between Vegas and DC is that in Vegas the drunks gamble with their ownmoney rather than with our money. Justin.TV chatters says he’s like a used car salesman. Perfect comparison, dude is high, high energy.
9:48 PM: Darrell Castle made a great point that our current system is a perversion of democracy. Love the quote about how the poison and the antidote are made in the same laboratory. Also makes a great point that the vast majority of Americans want a change but that the two mainstream parties manufacture crises so that they can then fix them, whereas the third parties want to change the system to empower us.
9:43 PM: Matt Gonzalez is giving his opening speech right now. He’s very eloquent and charismatic, two of Ralph Nader’s weaknesses. He’s noted that while a San Francisco politician he helped enact the minimum wage law which is linked to inflation so it goes up automatically.
9:39PM: The candidates are all here now…debate should start any minute now.
9:25 PM: BTW, there is a live video stream of this debate at They Will Be Heard and at Justin.TV. For the record we’re watching it at Justin.TV as the audio seems much clearer.
9:22 PM: So Wayne Allen Root has the best initials ever, WAR, and for tonight we will refer to him as such.
9:15 PM: For those of you just joining us, we are live-blogging the vice-presidential debate between Constitution candidate Darrell Castle, Independent candidate Matt Gonzalez and Libertarian candidate Wayne Allen Root. The debate should start at about 9:30 PM (eastern time) as one of the candidates and the moderator are just landing at the airport. The debate is being held at the University of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. For those who do not know the area, UNLV is pretty close to the airport so the debate should be underway shortly.
9:07 PM: They just announced that Matt Gonzalez and the moderator are running late. They are actually still hovering in an airplane above Las Vegas and are expected to be there in 15-20 minutes.
9:04 PM: So today’s live blog will follow the format established last time. Each entry will be timestamped with the latest entry at the top. The debate has yet to start. We’ll keep you updated.
