Nearly 50 prominent former elected and appointed officials from both parties are taking on the Commission on Presidential Debates in an effort to make it easier for independent candidates to get a coveted spot on the national stage in the fall of 2016.
The informal group—which includes former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., former CIA director and retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former Sens. Bob Kerrey and Joe Lieberman, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal—argue in a letter released Tuesday night that the commission makes it nearly impossible for a third-party candidate to get invited to the presidential debates. And the absence of third-party candidates, they contend, ultimately harms democracy and serves only the interests of the two major parties. [...]
“[The two-party system] is not working in the best interests of our country and it needs to be challenged and, in some sense, assaulted,” said Lieberman, who called the current 15 percent barrier an “unfair obstacle.”