Former New Mexico Republican Governor and 2016 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson may be part of the presidential debates in the next couple of months.
According to a new report from Politico, the Commission on Presidential Debates is advising debate host sites to prepare to have a third podium for the LP candidate as a “just in case” measure.
Here is what Commission on Presidential Debates co-chair Mike McCurry said in a statement:
“With Gary Johnson polling in some places more than double digits, they might have, some of our production people may have said, ‘Just in case, you need to plan out what that might look like.’ We won’t know the number of invitations we extend until mid-September.”
The latest polls suggest that Johnson is averaging about nine percent support. If he can consistently get above 10 percent then the Commission has said that it may provide some “wiggle room” on its 15 percent requirement.
If Johnson can get in the debates then that’s a step in the right direction. It’s too bad, though, that Johnson will continue to parade that whole “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” nonsense (SEE: Libertarians for Gary Johnson? 5 reasons libertarians can’t support Johnson). What he should promote is what libertarianism is really all about: radical freedom from the state, from centralized power.
Let’s hope he’s more of a Ron Paul in the debates than a Republican lite.
Republican lite?
He’s a Classical Liberal, running under the Libertarian Party.
Why does this continue to be so confusing?
Stuff like that always annoyed me.
He’s already more libertarian than like 90% of the country. It’s the “No True Scotsman” Fallacy. I take his broad brush strokes with a grain of salt.
You govern with philosophy. You campaign plainly. I have no issue with the ‘Socially liberal, fiscally conservative’ description. That is one that gets people who don’t care about wearing libertarian street cred on their jacket to actually engage the ideas.
And frankly, libertarians don’t even know what libertarian is. I’d rather we make the name bigger, and resist the urge for purity tests, that only seek to turn people off.
It’s not watering anything down to make a sales pitch.