Johnson and Stein in final third party presidential debate on Russia Today

I made three predictions in Free and Equal Debate tonight. How did they turn out? Here's the first one.

Maybe a coherent response could be cobbled together [from] the positions from [of] Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Rocky Anderson. I don't hold out much hope for anything useful coming out of the mouth of Virgil Goode.

Now The Atlantic's report on the debate: Shift-Alt-Debate: Meet 4 Presidential Candidates the Press Mostly Ignores

What do Libertarians, Greens, and Justice Party supporters agree about?

• It's urgent to rein in the military-industrial complex and reorient American foreign policy away from bellicose interventionism.
• Civil liberties are being trampled on by Democrats and Republicans.
• The drug war is a failed policy. Some combination of decriminalization, legalization and regulation is needed.

It says something powerful that people so ideologically diverse agree on those significant points.

Not just one, but three coherent positions from Johnson, Stein, and Anderson. That's even better than I expected.

What about Goode?

Goode wants to halt immigration. And along with Johnson, he wants a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on the legislature, imagining that it would weaken special interests.

No and no. First, I'm not in favor of restricting legal immigration any more than it already is, as I wrote in Happy 4th of July from James Howard Kunstler's Tea Party! Second, I've seen what term limits have done here in Michigan; they've actually made special interests more powerful, not less.

What else do Goode and Johnson agree on?

Gary Johnson and Virgil Goode believe America's deficits have put us on the edge of fiscal collapse. For them, balancing the budget is an urgent priority, and they're actually serious about it -- unlike the fake fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party, Johnson and Goode fess up to the fact that they'd try to make substantial cuts to everything from entitlements to the bureaucracy to the military.

I have my doubts about the wisdom of this version of austerity as well. There is a reason why I have an "anti-austerity" label.

That's two predictions that came true. What about the third?

I suspect it will be Jill Stein vs. Gary Johnson in the final debate.

And the finalists are...

Winners of October 23rd Presidential Debate Have Been Announced

“The voters have spoken, and we are pleased to announce that Gary Johnson and Jill Stein will advance to the second debate,” stated Christina Tobin, founder and chair of Free & Equal.

I'm three for three!

So, where can people watch the debate? I have a hint.

"[F]or unclear reasons, Russia Today"--snork! Russia Today loves to broadcast dissenting American voices, including tinfoil hat wearer Alex Jones. This event is right up their alley.

Take it away, Russia Today!

RT Presents Final US Third-Party Presidential Debate

RT is proud to host the final US presidential debate between Libertarian Party candidate Gov. Gary Johnson and the Green Party's Jill Stein. The two will go head-to-head and discuss foreign policy live from RT's Washington, DC studio on Tuesday, October 30. Voters can catch the show-down live on RT America, RT.com and right here on YouTube from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time, (October 31, 1:00 a.m. -- 2:30 a.m. GMT)

I have this feeling the two candidates will agree as much on an anti-interventionist foreign policy just as much as Obama and Romney agreed on an interventionist one. Russia Today couldn't ask for a better pair of candidates.