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As Superstorm Sandy’s worst impacts are relegated to the political backburner, Presidential campaigns are gearing up once more with only days left before the election. New polls of swing states show President Obama leading Governor Romney on the issue of Medicare. Senior voters who rely on Medicare in states like Virginia, Florida, and Ohio may make all the difference on election day.

Also being closely watched are third party voters in such swing states. Jill Stein of the Green Party, Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, and Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party are among those also running for President, and in some crucial states, could shave off enough slivers of of the electorate from one side of the political spectrum to hand over a victory to Obama or Romney.

Haunted by George W. Bush’s victory over Al Gore in the state of Florida and subsequently the nation, in 2000 which many attribute to Florida’s Ralph Nader voters, progressives this time around are endorsing a “safe state/swing state” strategy. Such a strategy involves encouraging voters to pick their favorite progressive third party candidate in so-called safe states like California or Texas where Obama or Romney are all but guaranteed wins by large margins, while voting for President Obama in swing states like Florida.

A proposal posted on RootsAction.org, summarizing this strategy calls on progressives to “have the most impact with their presidential vote.” The proposal has been signed by a number of prominent progressive political activists and thinkers including Jeff Cohen, Daniel Ellsberg, Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, Barbara Ehrenreich, Marjorie Cohn, Jim Hightower and, my guest, Norman Solomon.

GUEST: Norman Solomon, co-founder of rootsaction.org, author of many books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death. Norman was also recent candidate for Congress.

Click here to read the RootsAction proposal.

Watch the debate between Jeff Cohen and Cheri Honkala here: