‘Eight is Enough,’ Say Reagan Library Debate Organizers

Long-shot GOP presidential aspirant Thaddeus McCotter has slammed the organizers of Wednesday’s debate at the Reagan Library, contending that the rules for inclusion were deliberately finessed to exclude certain candidates, including himself, from sharing the stage with eight other candidates.

The September 7 debate in Simi Valley, California, is being co-sponsored by NBC News and Politico, which jointly established rules that a candidate must have received at least four percent support from Republicans in a “methodically sound and recognized national poll” at least once since the 2010 mid-term elections.

Critics say that the four percent threshold is an arbitrarily contrived figure seemingly designed to allow former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to participate in the event at the exclusion of several other long-shot candidates, including former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, whose highest showing to-date in a national survey was 3 percent in a Gallup Poll taken in late May.

Huntsman and Johnson were tied in that poll.

One commentator has derisively referred to the four percent threshold as the “Gary Johnson Rule” while Neil Cavuto of Fox Business News dubbed it “podium-gate” — a somewhat hollow and highly hypocritical criticism considering that Fox News, using similar polling criteria, excluded former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer from its South Carolina GOP debate on May 5 — the first presidential debate of the 2012 cycle.

More recently, Fox News shunned gay activist Fred Karger from its nationally-televised debate in Ames, Iowa, last month, despite the fact that Karger, who has been in the race longer than anybody else, had seemingly met the organizers’ criteria of polling an average of at least one percent in five national polls.

Huntsman, a darling of the mainstream media who’s been generally lingering at 1-2 percent in most national polls, only once received four percent in a reputable national survey — CNN/ORC Poll conducted in early August. That survey, conducted August 5-7, gave President Obama’s former ambassador to China precisely four percent of the vote.

Under the existing criteria, frontrunners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are expected to be joined on the stage at the Reagan Library by six other candidates: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota; Texas congressman Ron Paul; Atlanta businessman Herman Cain; former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; and Huntsman.

A CNN/ORC Poll released on August 29, places Johnson at 2 percent — a full percentage point ahead of Huntsman and Santorum, both of whom are expected to participate in the Simi Valley debate.

Former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico polled 3% in a Gallup Poll in late May — conveniently, one percentage point shy of the debate's arbitrary four percent threshold.

“Even if the national elite media doesn’t want to hear his ideas for balancing the budget now, cutting defense spending, or keeping the government out of so-called social issues, just tell us,” said Nielson, “But, do not try to justify his exclusion by saying he should have registered at 4 percent in a poll several months ago instead of 3 percent. That excuse just doesn’t fly, especially when the result is to muzzle a successful two-term governor who is doing just as well in recent polls as others who are invited.”

Though McCotter hasn’t come close to polling 3 or 4 percent in any of the eight national polling organizations designated by the debate organizers, the folksy, guitar-playing congressman has been speaking out forcefully on behalf of those who are being excluded from Wednesday’s debate, a group that includes — in addition to the libertarian-leaning Johnson — both Roemer, arguably the most experienced candidate in the field, and Karger, a longtime political consultant and the first openly gay person to actively seek a major-party presidential nomination.

“The great irony at work — especially with the Reagan Library debate — is going to be the fact that two frontrunners weren’t even Republicans during the Reagan administration, whereas people like myself at the age of 21 were,” McCotter said during a recent appearance on Neil Cavuto’s Fox Business show.

McCotter, of course, was referring to Texas Gov. Rick Perry — a Democrat throughout the Reagan Presidency — and Mitt Romney, who didn’t change his party affiliation from independent to Republican until the autumn of 1993.

“It’s especially disheartening when you know that people who are on that stage are either tied with me in the polls, as a ‘tertiary candidate,’ and have been running and spending millions of dollars, or are within very close proximity to us in the polls,” said the 46-year-old McCotter.

Describing the rules as “bullshit,” Carlos Sierra, Roemer’s blunt-spoken campaign manager, expressed his disappointment in a colorful email to supporters last week. 

“It’s laughable and disappointing that there will be someone on stage whose ignorant mind compared homosexuality to bestiality; the godfather of Obamacare will also be allowed to defend his unconstitutional law; there will be a former pizza chain executive who discriminates against the Muslim faith; and there will be someone on stage who thinks it’s more important to vacation in Hawaii than to campaign for the most important office of the free world,” wrote Sierra.  “I don’t know about you, but I’m truly disgusted by our system right now.”

Like McCotter, Roemer and Johnson, Karger also wants to be included in the Sept. 7 debate.  Citing his long involvement with President Reagan, Karger reached out to the debate organizers on Monday in a letter that was also sent to former First Lady Nancy Reagan, the president’s 90-year-old widow.

“We’re hoping that because I have the closest ties to former President Reagan of any candidate running for President, the organizers would want me on that stage in Simi Valley to share President Reagan’s vision for America,” said Karger. “I have been campaigning all over this country for the past 19 months spreading his values, his message of optimism and his ability to get along with Democrats and Republicans alike.”