So raise your hand if you know who Buddy Roemer is.  OK, that was unfair.  Raise your hand if you have ever heard of Buddy Roemer.   Well let me tell you something, this guy is the real deal, which means he has zero chance of getting elected.  I saw him Tuesday morning, (29 November) on The Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough’s political talk show that airs on MSNBC.  Scarborough, having served as a Republican Congressman from Florida’s 1st district for 6 years, is that channel’s only conservative.  That’s important in that Roemer is conservative enough that Scarborough is the only person on MSNBC that would have him and liberal enough that FOX won’t touch him.  After his appearance on the Morning Joe I can see why.  Roemer had just come from the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York and had some positive things to say.  Yeah, no way he gets on FOX.  Even his criticisms of OWS were constructive and  kind hearted.  The man is an official candidate for President, is polling at 2%, and was a Congressman and Governor of Louisiana for a total of 12 years.  Yet for some reason he can’t get into the debates.

Now for some background.  Roemer was a conservative Democrat in Congress, serving the great state of Louisiana for eight years and then served as Governor of Louisiana, as a Republican, for four years.   He had a nice run as Governor.  Unemployment in Louisiana went down by half during his term, and after inheriting a huge deficit he managed to balance the budget all four years of his term as governor.  He is the only candidate to visit the OWS demonstrations.  He took a beating from that crowd but stood and listened for a few hours.  He gave no speeches, but answered questions when asked.  His campaign takes no money from PACs, or Political Action Groups.  As a matter of fact Roemer’s campaign will not accept any donation from any person, business, or corporation over the amount of $100.  To his credit he has raised over 250,000 dollars as of this morning.  Yeah, at any given time he can tell you the amount of money he has raised.  No other candidate could manage that feat.  Yet when Roemer achieved the required polling numbers of 1% he was told the debates now required a candidate to be polling at 2%.  When Roemer hit that number he was then told he would had to have raised at least half a million dollars in the last 90 days to be considered viable and allowed in the debates.

Now I don’t mind Rick Santorum at all.  In fact he’s great at debates because just when you have figured out how the night is going to go down, ole` Rick jumps in with a random “I wan’t war with China” quote that blows the whole thing up.  It’s awesome.  Santorum makes it fun, but he has not hit any of the “required” markers that are keeping Roemer out of the debates.  Which begs some questions.  Roemer asked a few on Morning Joe today.  Who is making these rules and why are they allowed to do so?  Who has decided that fund raising goals are required to be heard in Presidential debates?  Even the polling number requirement is nonsense, but that at least has a plausible answer.  If they let anyone who registered to run for President in the debates there would be 185 people on the stage.  But this guy is a former Congressman and Governor, no way he should be kept out because of fund raising or any other reason.

I’ll let Buddy Roemer chase down the answer to those questions about fund raising.  The other obvious question to me is why is Santorum allowed in the debates when he can’t even get some of his own family members to answer polls about his candidacy and Roemer, who has hit all the traditional, time honored, markers for entry into the debates being blocked?  I think the answer to that is as obvious as the question.  Buddy Roemer is way too moderate which to a conservative equates to liberal.  This Presidential election is about us vs. them, Democrat vs. Republican, conservative vs. liberal.  The Republican party wants a clear distinction between the President and the Republican nominee.  Roemer is moderate in some ways and conservative in most others.  The GOP  doesn’t want to muddle the waters with a middle of the road guy because they feel that’s what they’ll be running against even though they will continue to paint the President as a commie, pinko, muslim, socialist.  This is why Mitt is so troubling to the GOP.  He is middle of the road, left of the road, and right of the road no matter the subject.  But Mitt has the poll number and the cash so he can’t be kept out.  Roemer is polling very low but he has enough.   His stance against big money politics means he is cash poor.  That became the leverage the GOP needed to keep less than rabid conservatives out of the national discussion.

That explains Santorum.  He is a frothing at the mouth conservative on financial as well as social issues.  One of Rick’s conservative gems came at a debate.  When a gay soldier serving in Iraq appeared via Skype at a debate to ask a question about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Santorum said he would run that soldier out of the military.  No one will accuse Rick Santorum of being moderate.  I believe that’s how he gets in and Buddy Roemer can’t.  If Roemer had gone to the OWS protests and peed on their feet we would probably see him in the next debate.

Anyone who says “Goldman Freaking Saks” on national television when describing the major donor to President Obama’s campaign as well as Mitt Romney’s campaign is OK in my book.

I encourage you to go to Buddy Roemer’s site and take a read.

http://www.buddyroemer.com/issues