This came in an e-mail tonight, and it doesn’t come off as a particularly effective campaign communication…

Once again, due to arbitrary, or as I call them, bullshit rules, Governor Roemer will be left out of the September 7th debate hosted by Politico and NBC News. It’s a sad day in our country when a former Congressman, Governor, and current successful businessman is not invited to be on-stage to discuss the corrupting influences of money in politics and the continued demise of our economy.

It’s laughable and disappointing that there will be someone on stage whose ignorant mind compared homosexuality to bestiality; the Godfather of Obamacare will also be allowed to defend his unconstitutional law; there will be a former pizza chain executive who discriminates against the Muslim faith; and there will be someone on stage who thinks it’s more important to vacation in Hawaii than to campaign for the most important office of the free world. I don’t know about you, but I’m truly disgusted by our system right now.

There is a candidate in this race who has the courage and intelligence to fight for what is right. He will never bow down to China like our current President does, or to the OPEC thugs that pray we will always depend on their oil. We finally have a candidate who doesn’t care about the money and the corruption it causes. Buddy Roemer will always put America first!

Again, it’s sad day when a former Governor, a former Congressman and a successful businessman is left off the stage. NBC News, FOX News, Politico, and the rest of the corporate-owned media are essentially choosing our nominee for us. What happened to the voters deciding instead of corporate fat cats behind smoke-filled rooms?

Carlos Sierra
Campaign Manager

In the subject line of the e-mail? “Bullshit Rules!”

We’ll dispense with the obvious: no, it’s not a particularly good idea to have “bullshit” in the subject line and the body of a message you send out to your e-mail list. Most folks, even those of us who aren’t squeamish about colorful language, would see that and say this is inappropriate from somebody who wants to be president.

Roemer’s chief gimmick as a presidential candidate was that he restricted his contributions to no more than $100 apiece, and he’s been broke since. $100 contribution limits don’t work. If they did, somebody would have used that gag before and been successful with it.

Actually, most politicians will tell you the worst part about running for office is having to ask people for money all the time, and the constant begging means you’ve got to tailor your message to the constant appeal for cash. How much worse is it for a guy who can only take $100 per donor? Begging for money is all he does if he wants to have a credible campaign – and after what? Six months? Roemer doesn’t have one. Sorry, but he doesn’t.

Sierra comes off as frustrated, and one sympathizes. He’s probably not making much money and from the looks of things, he’s not accomplishing a lot.

But launching personal attacks on individual candidates who poll a whole lot better than you do because they got invited to a debate and you didn’t? How is that going to attract the voters you need?

It’s also a bit difficult to convince anybody not to snub you for a debate appearance when your hook is that you’re going to talk about the corrupting influence of money in politics. Look, everybody knows there’s too much money pouring into the political process. Roemer is capable of giving a 45-minute speech on the topic, and will – even if he’s only given 20 minutes to make that speech (just ask the organizers of the Republican Leadership Conference down in New Orleans in June). But to act like this is the end-all and be-all of the issues affecting the country or that it’s a reason why Buddy Roemer needs to be president is ridiculous. How exactly is he going to get the money out of politics without doing what most real conservatives know needs to be done for lots of more important reasons – namely, shrinking the size and scope of the government that attracts so much money at present?

Other candidates in this race have figured that part out. Roemer goes around talking about a symptom of it and then pretending he has this great insight into what’s wrong with the process.

And it’s not like Roemer’s resume is all that hot. Let’s remember that Buddy Roemer has never been elected so much as dog-catcher as a Republican. He did a great job with that bank, and he’s to be commended for it. But every one of Buddy Roemer’s successful elections was won when he was a Democrat, and only one of them was a statewide election. He won that one in a primary with all of 33 percent of the vote – Edwin Edwards ran second with 28 percent in that primary and withdrew, which was a lousy thing to do in denying Roemer a governing mandate, but them’s the breaks.

And after four years of Roemer in office, the people he governed were so fired up about his work product that when he ran for re-election he came in behind not just Edwards but David Duke of all people. When the voters get a snootful of what you’re about over four years and you lose to David Duke, there’s a word for that. The word is “failure.” At that point you go and start a bank and you thank your lucky stars you’re more successful as a banker than you ever were as an elected official.

I’m saying this, and I voted for Roemer in 1991.

Roemer isn’t being locked out of this next debate because of corporate fat-cats or OPEC or whatever. He’s being locked out because he doesn’t have any money and he doesn’t have any support. You can’t put every single person who calls himself or herself a Republican presidential candidate on the stage; you’d have a completely worthless debate. At some point the candidates who aren’t generating any momentum have to get cut.

It’s at a time like this when you’ve got to appreciate Tim Pawlenty. T-Paw gave running for president a heck of a lot better shot than Roemer ever did, but when he realized there was no path to victory he stopped wasting his and his supporters’ time. He got out.

We’re not going to tell Roemer he needs to get out. The market’s already telling him that. But we will tell Mr. Sierra that if he doesn’t like the results he’s seeing from the makers of the debates, rather than send out e-mails whining about those results he and the Roemer campaign might want to rethink what they’re doing and work on changing the facts on the ground.