The first Green Party Presidential debate occured at the Herbst Theater-with one undeclared candidate (Ralph Nader) speaking after the debate.

Kent Mesplay (a quality inspector for an Air Quality Management District), Jared Ball (a hip hop historian and professor at Morgan State), Cynthia McKinney (former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia), Kat Swift (an activist for “Food not Bombs” from San Antonio) and Jesse Johnson (former actor and currently a filmmaker from West Virginia).

Ralph Nader got seven minutes to speak after the candidates debated for two hours. The reason given was that he was not a declared candidate for president (even though Jesse Johnson noted that he was also undeclared). Allison noted that the decision had been made over the last 48 hours.

The moderators were advertisted to be Congressional independent candidate Cindy Sheehan and former BOS Supervisor Matt Gonzalez. But Cindy Sheehan and BOE President Mark Sanchez moderated, while former Green Party Oakland City Council candidate Aimee Allison was the mistress of ceremonies. The crowd was not informed of why Sanchez was substituting for Gonzalez.

The candidates were given questions on Iraq to immigration by a panel of media personnel, including Luke Thomas from FogCity Journal, Amanda Witherell of SF Bay Guardian, Mary Ambrose who is managing editor from New America Media and Larry Bensky of KPFA. A member of the audience complained that there wasn’t a representative from the ethnic newspapers to the applause of others in the audience.

Thomas asked the first question-asking how the candidates would address that the Greens are seen by some as spoilers. Kent Mesplay had the best answer, “It’s not spoiling…It’s voting.”

Mary Ambrose asked about immigration, noting that she was an immigrant and had a work visa. She complained that it meant that her spouse could not work.

Cynthia McKinney responded directly to Ambrose, “Be glad that you could come here. If you were from Haiti, our country’s quotas wouldn’t let you in.”

Jared Ball noted that the topic of immigration was being moved by fear from those in power. Ball continued, “I feel that if you are living human being and you need medical attention, you should get it. And if we need to take away from someone who already has too much for you to get medical atention, let’s do it.”

After a hour, Cindy Sheehan and Mark Sanchez asked questions from the audience. But their questions was very vague. An example from Mark Sanchez was “What do you think of the Farm Bill?” All but McKinney confessed that they were not up on the farm bill. McKinney as a former member of the House Agricultural Appropriations Committee pointed out that there need to be a bill outlawing genetically-modified foods as well as more support for organic farming.

Sanchez noted there weren’t any questions about marijuana. So Johnson used the opportunity to promote decriminalize marijuana to the applause of several within the audience.

Sheehan’s last question was “How would you use your campaign to help Green Party to create better ties with other progressives.”

Cythnia McKinney’s answer got a standing ovation when she said, “The Green Party needs to stop being divided. We need to unite the party. We must face the machine of corporate politics and we can’t do it divided. I’ve have never seen something like this like I see now in the Green Party. So please let’s come together.”

During the summary statements, Jared Ball announced that he was changing his campaign to become an outreach campaign for the candidacy of Cynthia McKinney for President.

In light of the divided Green Party, Ralph Nader then came on the stage alone to a standing ovation of over half of the audience. His speech used the mantra “The People are really upset.” This mantra continued with rising CEO’s salaries, Blackwater, Halliburton, rising health costs and corporate control.

Nader did a good job of answering question from Sheehan and Sanchez. He is for IRV and working to create lies with labor unions. To stem violence, Nader noted, “Peoople who have greater hope have a greater stake in society. People without hope are more likely to be violent.”

In the end, over half of the crowd applauded Nader as an icon. But it was clear that his days of automatically getting the presidential nomination were over and that a new future within the Green Party was beginning.