Burns and Haberman report that Jon Huntsman has been endorsed by Michael Moore:
Jon Huntsman has scored a prominent fan - unfortunately, it’s an icon of the left, who Republicans love to hate.
It depends what the meaning of “scored” is. On September 5, Moore said this to Newsweek:
Moore hasn’t even decided whether he’ll vote for Obama again in 2012; he likes Jon Huntsman on the Republican side, saying “it’s crazy time over there” and Huntsman is the only “sane candidate.” “If the Republicans were smart, they would nominate [him].”
Burns and Haberman weren’t alone in running with the broken news. The Daily Caller filed a piece on it. Human Events called it “the end of the Huntsman campaign.” TPM put it on its campaign wire, which is cited in the Politico item.
So, set your calenders for mid-October. There’ll be breaking news about Michael Moore endorsing Jon Huntsman!
Meanwhile, we’re seeing a lot of stories warning that Huntsman might be excluded from the next presidential debate.
The network’s criteria for one of the last debates of the fall requires candidates to poll at least 2% in three national polls released by a news organization between Sept. 1. and Oct. 16. Mr. Huntsman, who averages 1.2% in all national polls, has only met that threshold in two qualifying surveys, according to Real Clear Politics.
This is actually a little off. CNN’s only counting polls from ABC, AP, Bloomberg, CBS, CNN, FOX, Gallup, Los Angeles Times, Marist, McClatchy, NBC, Newsweek, Pew, Quinnipiac, Reuters, USA Today and Time. He’s only met the threshold in one of these polls since September 1: the CNN poll. A Huntsman-less debate is a real possibility, given how infrequently half of these polls are coming out.
