There will be two more presidential debates in the coming weeks, on Oct. 11 and 17, but they’ll likely feature the same faces as the first one.

Only Al Gore and George W. Bush are allowed to participate in the official debates. Green candidate Ralph Nader – who is getting up to 7 percent in some national polls – and Reform candidate Pat Buchanan – who received $12.6 million in federal matching funds for his campaign – are excluded.

Nader, given a ticket by a college student, wasn’t even allowed to watch Tuesday’s debate from a side room.

To gain a spot in the debate, a candidate must have 15 percent of the vote in national polls.

Fifteen percent is too high. A candidate only has to garner 5 percent of the general vote for his party to receive matching funds in the following election. A party can get millions in government money to campaign, but still not be given a forum to express their views.

On the other hand, opening the debates to all candidates is ludicrous. Allowing every party from the Constitution Party and the Constitutionalist Party to the New Party and the New Union Party just wouldn’t work – no stage would hold them all.

But keeping them all out dooms America to a two-party system for at least the next four years. If we don’t give candidates a forum where 46 million people will be watching, they just can’t get their message out.

A poll percentage of 5 percent is plenty for a candidate to be included in at least one of the three presidential debates. Third-party candidates, though not as popular as Bush and Gore, have ideas that deserve to be heard.

Watch for speeches by Nader, Buchanan, Natural Law candidate John Hagelin and Libertarian candidate Harry Browne, among others, in the next few weeks. They’re out there, just waiting to be heard at votenader.com, buchananreform. com, hagelin.org and harrybrowne2000.org.

Editorial Board: Carrie Tett, Greg Jerrett, Katie Goldsmith, Amie Van Overmeer, Andrea Hauser and Jocelyn Marcus