Wayne Allyn Root Wins Third Party Candidate Debate

Three Libertarian candidates (Steve Kubby, George Phillies, Wayne Allyn Root) and one Green candidate (Alan Augustson) participated in the ‘Third Party Candidate Debate’ last night- broadcast live on internet radio and moderated by ‘young online radio guru’ Koko.

Despite the name, there was actually very little debate. The four candidates actually seemed to agree on most of the issues.

Much of the discussion was about the viability of a third-party candidate and the funding needed to run a campaign. On this topic, Wayne Allyn Root, self-proclaimed “television pitchman” and “infomercial expert”, was the only candidate who seemed to have a plan.

He admits he doesn’t think he can win the election- not this year, anyway. Instead, Root wants to use the 2008 election to build the “Libertarian Brand” – especially among his target audience: online poker players.

According to Root, there are “…up to thirty million people who love online poker and online gaming and I think I?m finally going to make a difference for that group. I can get them to come to the polls. I can get them to contribute money. I can get them excited. I can get their support.”

Ha! Online Poker Players? Certainly not a perfect solution, I’ll agree. But then again- Root has his own star on Las Vegas Walk of Stars- so he may know a little more about building brands and target audiences than I do.

Crazy or not, Root’s plan is a hell of a lot better than Alan Augustson’s- which he summarizes as: you can say ?No, Unless? or you can say ?Yes, If.? I choose the latter. I choose to hope.

Anyway- I would have written Root off as a wacko- except that I liked his answer to the Iraq question as well:

First of all, there is a way to leave there tomorrow. We went there to institute democracy. My plan, which I?ve talked about on many different radio and TV shows in the last month, the very first thing I would do is prove that it is all about democracy. I would have a vote, tomorrow! Let the Iraqi people vote: should we stay or should we go? If the Iraqi people don?t appreciate what we?ve done … then I say we leave tomorrow.

Let the Iraqi people vote. Best answer I’ve heard yet.

You can listen to the archived audio here and read the transcript here.