Daily Santorum: The debate debate

Debates in multi-candidate races often reject people -- and thank God for that.

Yes, it is upstanding for debate hosts to invite everybody on the ballot, but that doesn't mean it's commendable. We've covered too many debates over the years where that's the case, and what usually happens is the candidates you really want to hear answers from are allowed to sit back and relax while go-nowhere names suck up as much free publicity as they can. That serves no one well, especially voters.

So we understand both sides of the debate debate. Still stinging from his snub by a South Carolina forum next weekend since he hasn't reached 5% in poll aggregation, Rick Santorum today surprisingly called forum host Jim DeMint a "silly rules guy." Meanwhile the National Review looks with jaundiced eye at the similar bar set by the Reagan Library debate Sept. 7, which barely allows Santorum in, but keeps candidates such as former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson out.

Dave Weigel also weighs in:

But, okay, fine, we're using a national poll. By this standard, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul should all make it in -- they regularly poll higher than 4 percent. The Reagan Library debate also includes Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum, while excluding Gary Johnson, Buddy Roemer, and Thaddeus McCotter. That's odd: According to the last Gallup poll, none of those candidates break 4 percent. Aha -- NBC doesn't say they have to be recent! So Gingrich, who's collapsed, and who no reporter would say "in a credible position to be a principal competitor," can count the recent polls that have him over 4 percent. Santorum can count a Gallup poll from two months and three weeks ago, even though that poll didn't include Perry and did include Tim Pawlenty -- it took a snapshot of a fundamentally different election, one in which Santorum had more of a dark horse's shot in Iowa. Huntsman can count the CNN poll from earlier this month that put him at 4 percent, even though that poll included Giuliani and Palin, who aren't actually in the race.

In the meantime, RS is continuing to hammer other GOP candidates -- at the South Carolina event noted above he went after Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, and yesterday he told Politico's Dan Hirshhorn that Ron Paul's isolationism displays a "disconnect from reality." So expect that attack line to come up at the next debate -- as long as Santorum is invited.

Schedule: As we guessed, Hurricane Irene will impact Santorum's travel, but in Pennsylvania not South Carolina. He was due to have events Monday in Philadelphia and Allentown, the Morning Call reports, but due to the storm had to cancel. On Tuesday he's going to the Centre County fair, among other places. He's due here in Pittsburgh Wednesday but the campaign hasn't provided details.