Republican presidential candidates will be on the stage in South Carolina next week for a FOX News debate. Fred Karger was invited, but not really. The GOPers don't actually want him on the stage. So, Fred is hitting back -- and taking issue with the criteria. And, he's included FOX in the discussion, by using FOX's own words.
Fred's set up a webpage about SC debate. And, his campaign emailed us their memo to the SC GOP and FOX. Here's how it begins:
MEMORANDUMFred concludes:
TO: Mrs. Karen Floyd, Chair, South Carolina Republican Party
Mr. Joel Sawyer, Executive Director, South Carolina Republican Party
Mr. Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corporation
Mr. Roger Ailes, President, Fox News Channel
DATE: April 27, 2011
RE: South Carolina Debate
VIA EMAIL
First, thank you all very much for my invitation to the May 5, 2011 South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate in Greenville. I was honored to be invited, but your criteria were apparently designed to keep me off of the stage at the Peace Center next Thursday night.
I would like to take issue with two of your five requirements:
* You state that in order to be in the South Carolina debate, “one must have garnered at least an average of 1% in five national polls based on most recent polling.”
* You state that one “must register a presidential exploratory committee or have announced a formal campaign for president."
Telephone Polling
Michael Clemente, senior vice president of Fox News Network, said in the Los Angeles Times on April 25, 2011 that, “Because the field is forming so late this cycle, there are not as many polls as there were at this stage in previous cycles.”
A random sample of national polls show the difficulty pollsters are having in the current Republican primary cycle. Each poll includes a wide array of different names, many of whom have not indicated the slightest interest in running for President in 2012. Poll results are skewed dramatically, and many candidates and potential candidates are often left off these “traditional polls” completely.
Buddy Roemer and I have been left off nearly every national poll. Neither of us meets your requirement of “garnering 1% in five national polls,” because he and I have not been in five national polls. Yet Buddy Roemer is scheduled to be in Thursday’s debate, and I am not.
The contradictory criteria for the May 5, 2011 South Carolina debate invites scrutiny, because of what appears to be the arbitrary way in which the SCGOP and Fox News includes participants to its debate.Stay tuned. Fred is playing hardball.
I hope Fred gets on the debate stage next week. It would sure make that event way more interesting.
