Larry King to moderate third-party debate

Larry King of the television show 'Larry King Now' speaks during the Hulu portion of the 2012 Summer TCA Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 31, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif. / Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

ST. PAUL, Minn. Larry King, the celebrated talk show host accustomed to A-list interview guests, has agreed to moderate a debate featuring a squad of minor-party presidential candidates.

The former CNN giant will guide next Tuesday's debate in Chicago, which will be broadcast on the Internet. The candidates taking part are the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson, the Green Party's Jill Stein, the Constitution Party's Virgil Goode and the Justice Party's Rocky Anderson.

King told The Associated Press it's clear none of them will win the election, but said they all deserve a voice in the presidential race.

Democrats and Republicans are keeping tabs on Johnson and Goode, two ex-Republicans who could be factors in key battleground states.

• Do the debates unfairly shut out third parties?

"They have a story to tell. It's a valid story," King said. "It's a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law."

King left CNN in 2010 and now hosts a show on Ora.TV, an on-demand Internet channel.

The debate was organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, which has criticized the debates between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney for excluding third-party candidates and coming off as too programmed.

Organizers say at-home viewers will be encouraged to submit real-time questions on social media websites such as Twitter, where they'll get King's attention with the "AskEmThisLarry" hashtag.

[kiaweking]

http://live.freeandequal.org/stream.html

[Alielbaryeshua]

Has anyone else noticed that there is a virtual media blackout of the

TIME AND CHANNEL

that these debates are suppose to be on?!

I have search dozens of sites and no details!

[kiaweking]

I have noticed. I'm looking for a venue to listen to these debates in order to have a wider perspective of what the choices are. Sad to get so close to third party politics only to be left in the dark.

[DontTredOnMe]

http://live.freeandequal.org/stream.html

[beancube2010]

Why the Commission of Presidential Election Debate is a private organization?

American women, this is yet again another right wing conservative old boys club approach to exclude all of you from the decision making process. Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala were not just blocked but be arrested two days ago. Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala are women that those right wing conservative won't need time to think that they can, and love to, repress, ignore, exploit, and abuse.

Women, do you have power and go organized to create a mandate for them to go on the stage to share this year's Presidential election debate with Barake Obama and Mitt Romney? You have to prove you have this power to your kids using this opportunity.

[enough-already]

Come on people, wake up. Go read about the Electoral College. NO candidate has even the tiniest chance of winning the presidential election unless they belong to either the Republican or Democratic party. The electoral college elects the president, not the citizens of the country. Voting is a total waste of time, until the electoral college is abolished.

[larry2012]

Listen very carefully to these alternate candidates. One of them just might grab your attention and your vote. Surely neither the Democrats nor Republicans have a fit candidate to offer any real solutions to America's woes. If enough of us think for ourselves instead of falling for the same old BS and vote for someone other than the status quo. It stopped working for us decades ago.

[dotkhan]

After voting for third party candidates for over 30 years I've moved beyond continuing to do so. Until we get election reform including instant runoff election, other candidates will only be viewed as spoilers. This is unlikely since the Republican and Democratic duoploly created the debate rules and passed the voting laws.

[comparapoll]

We have created a poll where you can cast your vote in three different ways -- (a) the usual kind, (b) instant run off, and (c) fractional vote. The idea is to figure out collectively which candidates have a pulse. The more of us that participate, the better informed we will be. Check out comparapoll dot com

And, yes, it's anonymous voting.

If you have comments, there is a feedback link at the bottom of comparapoll dot com. Will be adding more polls, for instance.

[comparapoll]

If you are interested in democratically finding out the true pulse of the third party candidates, please participate on Comparapoll.com.Twitter updates: https://twitter.com/ComparaPoll

[andyo4]

Wow looks like all of you are mouth pieces for the Fox News, You guys are hook line and sinker with their talking points. Feels good to act like your rich and be aligned with them? Bush ran on the same agenda, he spent way more then the previous administration, and nose dived our economy for the working class. I voted for Bush, and I will not fall for that again.
The Republicans have to lie and spin their views because they have nothing to benefit the working class, nothing at all. Only ones that get benefits from the republicans are the top percent, did trickle down work for all you when bush was in office lol, get real, get news from independent sources fox news has turned into the most biased new agency in the Main Stream.
None of you are even rich enough to get the tax breaks he is offering. I have known hard working men that lost their jobs, and unemployment ran out, they had to get on food stamps for their family. To make it until they found work. Now you guys would classify him as the scum of the earth welfare sucker, now if a Mega rich business man takes advantages of tax loop holes, and tax cuts he is a smart business man. Which he already can afford to pay his taxes, and then some. You see the Hypocrisy here.
Romney is so out of touch, born rich, he comes off with zero empathy, doesn't even relate to the average person only to elite business men, so smug, even if you are mega rich that doesn't entitle you to become the president, guy has ran for presidency, and Governor four times he was passed up many times, its a freaking joke this guy is the GOPS pick.

[promontorium]

What a fascinatingly condescending article from such a biased and anti-democratic news source. I guess I can see why the networks won't cover the 3rd parties at all, and thus have a massively biased effect on elections. You think retired old man Larry King is too GOOD for a third party debate? How you can be so openly contemptuous against democracy and freedom would make North Korea proud. You're disgusting CBS.

[ProgressHawk]

24 Reasons for Liberals to Vote for Ron Paul or Refuse to Vote In 2012: progresshawk.wordpress.com, progresshawk.posterous.com