But Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson is crisscrossing the country in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to boost his national poll numbers and qualify for the presidential debates.
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Johnson needs to poll at an average of 15 percent in five polls to participate in the presidential debates, as per the Comission on Presidential Debates.
A survey from the advertising assessment firm Ace Metrix asked people to watch and rate political ads from presidential candidates from across the spectrum, and the results revealed the ones in support of Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein appear to be some of the most effective ads in this election. But he may be raising his profile the wrong way. His baffled response “What is Aleppo?” ricocheted around the internet. “I feel terrible”, he said to Bloomberg Politics. “To me, this overreaction is a sign that people are starting to worry about Gary”.
The Facebook post and tweet by the star of “The Terminator” move franchise followed a supportive tweet on Johnson’s behalf by Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate and a former MA governor.
“What is Aleppo?” asked Johnson when Morning Joe host Mike Barnicle asked him, “What would you do about Aleppo if elected?”
Many who attended today’s rally, however, said Johnson’s misstep did not affect their willingness to vote for him in a contest that has been defined by, among other things, Donald’s Trump’s controversial comments about Muslims, women, and Mexican immigrants.
“Can I name every city in Syria? No”. In the three that have come out Fox, CNN and ABC Johnson registered at 9 percent, 7 percent and 9 percent respectively.
Geography-challenged presidential candidate Gary Johnson apologized to his supporters during a campaign stop in Times Square on Saturday, and tried to make up for a foreign policy gaffe with an impromptu primer on Syria. “The 15 percent is somewhat, I’ll say, unrealistic”, Neilson said.
While a candidate must obtain 15 percent in the polls to make the debate stage, many voters are clamoring for better third party representation, given the divisiveness of the Democratic and Republican candidates. Pew Research Center put out a poll on August 18 which put Johnson at 10 percent nationally, while a more recent poll from CNN, which will be used in calculating the debate figures, leaves Johnson at 7 percent.
Even before considering the 11 battleground states that traditionally decide the election – and one or two more Republican states that the alienating Trump may push into play – Clinton has a comfortable head-start of 200 to 165 electoral votes in the race to the 270 finish line.
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Johnson’s long-shot campaign has placed orders for advertising in the states of Nevada, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Washington, according to data from Kantar Media/CMAG.
