CNN Owes Gary Johnson An Apology and A Prime-Time Appearance

Who put CNN in charge of deciding which candidates can, and cannot, be the Republican presidential candidate? Monday's Republican presidential debate included nearly all the well-known candidates, including Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Left off from that list? Former New Mexico governor and well-known liberty activist Gary Johnson. CNN's excuse was that Johnson was polling too low to qualify. Wait, what? The point of these debates is to introduce candidates and their ideas to Republican primary voters, and let the voters decide whose ideas would best represent them in the election. Eliminating Johnson from contention before the debates defeats the entire purpose of the debates. It would be like Major League Baseball deciding the Chicago Cubs were ineligible for the playoffs based on their Spring Training pre-season record. There's a reason baseball teams plays 162 games — to determine who deserves to move on to the playoffs. We don't let ESPN executives sit down at the beginning of the season to decide which 8 teams qualify for the baseball playoffs. Why should CNN be afforded that ability for something far more important than baseball? CNN owes Governor Johnson a public apology and a chance to express his views on the issues on one of its prime-time weekday programs. You can ask CNN to apologize here. For his part, Governor Johnson did not take this slight laying down. He took the questions of the debate and answered them — all of them — and released the video of his performance on youtube. You can view the video here. I highly recommend watching it. While CNN may not be interested in what Governor Johnson has to say, we at Benzinga think he has a lot to add to the national dialogue, and has a right to be heard. To that end, we will have the governor on Benzinga Radio Wednesday, June 22. Stay tuned to Benzinga for more details. Do you have a question for Governor Gary Johnson? How about a specific topic you'd like to hear him talk about? Post it in the comments below or email it to me at lucimorland@gmail.com and I will pass it along to the Benzinga Radio team.