How can a 3rd party candidate make any headway

A couple days ago Cindy Sheehan and many volunteers protested at KQED, the public TV/radio station. Our representative Nancy Pelosi hasn't deigned to debate anyone in years. She never had to -- the most any Republicans ever get in the polls is around 15%.

However, this year she has a worthy competitor: internationally known peace activist Cindy Sheehan. But she still won't debate. So anyway, it's my understanding that KQED decided to do a 30 minute, one-on-one interview with Nancy Pelosi. In the interest of "equal time," Cindy, the Republican candidate, and the Libertarian candidate would get 30 minutes to debate each other (without the sitting incumbent, kind of like being consigned to the kids' table at Thanksgiving).

None of this makes any sense, of course, if Nancy Pelosi has time for a 30 minute solo interview she has time to debate the other candidates. But the station's communications director and Nancy Pelosi insisted on this totally unfair arrangement. So Cindy and her "Sheehanistas" protested the station during Nancy's interview. They were actually able to get into the building with a megaphone when the delivery man came to the door. I hear they were going up and down the halls with a megaphone, and were admonished by someone working there, to which the volunteer responded, "well, you've got a lot bigger megaphone than we do, why don't you start using it for truth?"

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNsnR6Rx4-U

Here's a short clip from yesterday, where Cindy's campaign manager confronts Nancy Pelosi in person: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dEujRU6uG4