Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson leaves the GOP race for warmer libertarian waters

Unable to participate in any debates and with less than 3% in national and state polls, Republican Presidential candidate Gary Johnson who was a former two term governor in New Mexico is leaving the Republican race in order to pursue the nomination of the libertarian party for president. From a Politico breaking news email:

Gary Johnson will quit the Republican primaries and seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination instead, POLITICO has learned. The former two-term New Mexico governor, whose campaign for the GOP nomination never caught fire, will make the announcement at a press conference in Santa Fe on Monday. Libertarian state directors will be informed of Johnson's plans on a conference call Tuesday night, a Johnson campaign source told POLITICO.

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Gary Johnson debates Obama impersonator

File this under Things You Do When You're Not Winning the Nomination. Media Matters reports "Thursday night on Fox Business, John Stossel used about seven minutes of his show to host a "debate" between former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and an actor who impersonates President Obama." It's a fairly embarrassing video to watch, both in terms of how insignificant it makes Gary Johnson look and how absurd Stossel's program is. Read More......

The first Republican debate of 2012

You should read Dave Weigel's preview of tonight's debate in South Carolina. Tim Pawlenty finds himself in an odd position, a serious candidate on a stage with four candidates who have zero chance of winning the Republican primary. Every other candidate but Pawlenty is there to get an applause line, throw red meat to the base and say things that no serious candidate would say and all of that meat will be fresh for Republican activists who are watching these candidates debate for the first time. So, Tim Pawlenty can't win tonight, he can't throw more red meat than the other candidates and being the serious candidate tonight means being the most boring candidate. The only news from tonight is how much Pawlenty doesn't excite the base and whether he stumbles and says something he shouldn't say.

And at the end of the day, the only reason the Democratic Party is taping the debate is to catch Tim Pawlenty tripping in case he's the presidential or vice-presidential nominee.

Having said that the biggest loser tonight is Fox News. The most powerful force in Republican politics and they can only get one semi-serious candidate to show up to their debate.

I'll be attempting to update the blog during tonight's debate but you can follow our real time coverage on twitter by follow Ablogelections, Kombiz, MattOrtega and mbrownerhamlin. Read More......

SC GOP presidential debate field finalized

Dave Weigel reports:

Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza
Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico
Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas
Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota
Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania

Buddy Roemer and Fred Karger were denied access to the debate because they have not pulled 1% in five national polls. By excluding both Roemer and Karger, the South Carolina Republican Party probably avoided a lawsuit by the Karger campaign.

Yesterday I doubted whether Gary Johnson has polled 1% in five national polls. Here's what I've found from this year's national Republican presidential primary polling:

Fox News, 4/25-4/27: Gary Johnson - 1%
Gallup, 4/15-4/20: Gary Johnson - 0%
McClatchy-Marist, 4/10-4/14: Gary Johnson - not polled
PPP, 4/7-4/10: Gary Johnson - not polled
CNN/Opinion Research, 4/9-4/10: Gary Johnson - not polled
Fox News, 4/3-4/5: Gary Johnson - 1%
Gallup, 3-18-3/22: Gary Johnson - 2%
CNN/Opinion Research, 3/11-3/13: Gary Johnson - not polled
PPP, 3/10-3/13: Gary Johnson - not polled
NBC/WSJ, 2/24-2/28: Gary Johnson - not polled
Gallup 2/18-2/20: Gary Johnson - 1%
PPP, 11/19-11/21/10: Gary Johnson - not polled
Gallup, 11/13-11/14/10: Gary Johnson - 1%

Looking at this list, Johnson has been polled in six national polls, registering as high as 2% in one poll and as low as 0% in another. Gallup and Fox are the only polling outfits that have polled Johnson, with his average across those six polls at 1%. But he isn't being polled elsewhere and he is at 0% in the latest Gallup poll. By the rules of the SC GOP, Johnson is qualified for the debate. Of course in the same time frame that it takes to find five polls with Johnson at 1%, there are six other polls which don't even include Johnson. Obviously the SC GOP has excluded these polls from consideration of Johnson's average, but it certainly doesn't make for a strong case for Johnson being a viable, national candidate, with poll-proven following.

Given the field that they've chosen and the standards they've set forth, I don't have a problem with the SC GOP's debate moving forward. They're applying their rules evenly. But I do think the weakness of the field and the fact that the top five Republican candidates have not yet declared or, in Mitt Romney's case declined to attend, the entire debate should have been postponed, as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation debate was postponed, due to the absence of a "full slate of candidates to participate." What the SC GOP will have instead is a field of small, unknown, unpopular, and uncompetitive candidates. Evidently that's good enough for the SC GOP, so who am I to disagree? Read More......