“Seat’s taken,” Mr. Kucinich

Wow.

Have we really come this far?

Mr. Absent himself, Alan Keyes, is invited to participate in yesterday’s Republican debate (essentially wasting everyone’s time), yet Dennis Kucinich was rejected from today’s Democratic debate.

The reason, you ask:

The sponsoring newspaper requires that all debate participants have an office and paid employees in the state of Iowa.

Are you fucking kidding me? An office?!

First off, what do an office or paid employees have to do with the validity of a Presidential hopeful? I know plenty of people who have big offices with tons of employees, and they’re still complete morons. I’d like the Des Moines Register (no, I’m not kidding) to explain to me the correlation between a physical office and one’s ability to lead a nation.

Secondly, doesn’t requiring the rental or ownership of a campaign office contribute to overspending during election season? Shouldn’t our goal be to an elect a leader who doesn’t need the big dollars from corporate America to win the people’s vote? And shouldn’t we focus our attention on the issues, as opposed to a trivial debate rule?

Excluding a valid candidate, like Mr. Kucinich, from a nationally-televised debate calls into question the fairness of these public forums. I have a hard time basing my voting decisions around a discussion that would disqualify a well-qualified and politically active candidate.

Not to mention the fact that, even if he had been invited to participate, Kucinich would have been largely drowned out as Clinton and Obama bickered away. But that’s a whole different issue.

The fact is that I’m disgusted by the lack of credit these lesser-known candidates receive during elections in this country. Where’s democracy gone? What’s happened to our freedom of choice in selecting our elected officials?

The media has somehow assumed the role of “election dictator”, effectively stripping us of our ability to make a balanced choice. And, sadly, the American people have let this happen.

Iowa Public Television….you’ve done it again!!!!!!!

Thanks, Stumblers!