2008 Green Party Presidential Debate Photos

SF Chronicle coverage:

Green Party presidential hopefuls debate in SF
Delfin Vigil, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 13, 2008

Congrats on a great debate in SF! We had a smaller forum in Mpls. Jan. 5:<br>

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Kat Swift and Jesse Johnson visited Minnesota Jan. 5 for a meeting and forum. In the morning, they attended the state winter membership meeting in St. Paul, where they visited with GPMN members. Johnson and Swift ate lunch with Lydia Howell from community radio station KFAI. In the afternoon they went back to the meeting and each spoke for about 7 minutes. There were about 100 members there, who received the candidates well.

In the evening, Johnson and Swift attended a presidential candidate forum over in Minneapolis. Danene Provencher said a few words about the Draft Nader campaign, Farheen Hakeem spoke on behalf of the Cynthia McKinney campaign, and David Strand updated the audience on the other candidates who were unable to attend.

Both candidates spoke about addressing the excesses of corporate power, and a range of other issues consistent with the Ten Key Values of the Green Party. Johnson called attention to the issue of mountain removal in Appalachia, saying that coal mining is now occurring at a rate of one mountain per hour. Swift said some of her priorities were repealing NAFTA, pardoning nonviolent drug offenders, a moratorium on the death penalty, and stopping domestic violence.

After the forum, interested Greens had a chance to visit at length with the candidates at a nearby restaurant.

The San Francisco event was an interesting campaign event but it wasn't a debate . It was promoted as one however (like with the huge banner on the stage ! ) iIf the Green candidates didn't have real serious differences perhaps that wouldn't be so bad . But i understand they do. . Where, for instance, do they stand on the esclating war in Afghanistan ? I and every one i know do not want to see the troops withdrawn from Iraq only to be redeployed in Kabul . But i have been told that some prominent Greens do not want to oppose that bloodly ''sideshow ''war.
Where do the Green candidates stand on the Labor movement? Most Greens are working class or middle class but some are very affulent . Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo are both multi -millionaires . What's their attitute towars labor especially when it's close to home . Do they employ workers and if so are they organized ?
What the Greens stand on the German Greens , who supported tthe invasion of Afghanistan and the intervention in Yugoslavia ?
Yes a real debate accomplied by direct questions (instead of card only questions ) from the audience would have been more in keeping with the Green party ethos

The hardcore socialists who see the Greens as a limited hang-out love to trash us on here.

So we have a millionaire in our realm, but we didn't have a slick enough "debate" . . .

And where were you in the organizing?

Do you think the organizers were paid? Do you think Greens should have been screaming at each other on stage over the minutae about which way to withdraw the troops?

The event was fine, the party is doing okay and as expected, and more are needed to get in there and organize and volunteer. So what?

If you think it all wasn't good enough, you need to explain where you've been the past 2 weeks, 2 years, 2 decades . . . and how your party's presidential debate came out as this country was slipping faster and faster into fascism.

If you want to criticize that's great -- do so constructively, then get to work.

Thanks!

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/es_crackberry_chronicles_080114.shtml

Green, i didn't say anything about HOW to withdraw (that's easy. Via the same Jumbo jets that brought them there ) , i wondered if all the Green candidates were really for withdrawing ALL the troops from both fronts of the same war..
How about you Mr. Green ? Are you for withdrawing ALL the troops or do you think Afghanistan is a '' Good war'' ?

And why would Green be Mr?

I think most Greens would probably agree on withdrawing all troops AND pulling them out of countries all over the world as well, as Ron Paul suggests. That's why Paul is appealing to so many people who don't understand the breadth of his positions. They hear him say "bring everyone home" and they go wild, forgetting what must be sacrificed for that with Paul's other positions.

i do thank ''Green'' for his/her response . It was only a partial one because i also think that most Greens are for ending all Us Wars (or Us funded wars , like the 30 billion (! ) given to Israel )
But are all the candidates in agreement with that ? Does the non-candidate candidate Nader favor withdrawing from Afghanistan for example ?
P.S. "" Green '' was correct in noting that i shouldn't have used MR. My apologies for the female comrades of the Green Party.