Who Gets to Be Heard From?

When is a candidate not a candidate? Well sometimes it's when a debate organizing group decides that they're not "viable" for one reason or another. In the case of tonight's MSNBC Democratic presidential candidate debate, Dennis Kucinich was not invited. When he argued the point in court, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled just after 4pm today that MSNBC didn't have to include him. As of this moment, the Supreme Court has the case and hasn't yet announced a decision. There's plenty of time before the debate - three whole hours.

According to the NYTimes,

The debate is scheduled to be shown on MSNBC at 9 p.m. Eastern. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are expected to attend.

In his ruling, Mr. Thompson found NBC to be in breach of contract because Mr. Kucinich was invited to the debate on Jan. 9, only to be disinvited shortly thereafter.

What changed? On Jan. 10, after two other Democratic candidates dropped out of the race, NBC revised its qualifying criteria for debate participants, requiring that invited candidates must have finished in the top three in either the Iowa caucus or the New Hampshire primary. . . . Mr. Kucinich’s complaint argued that, without the inclusion of all “credible candidates,” the telecast would be “effectively an endorsement of the candidates selected by NBC” instead of an actual debate. He cited the public interest provisions of the Federal Communications Act of 1934.

We shall wait and see if Kucinich's determination as non viable based on MSNBC's criteria holds up in the Supreme Court. If it does, the people of Iowa and New Hampshire have already decided a great deal for the rest of us.

Thanks guys.