Gary Johnson Thinks He Could Make Debates, or 'Game Over'

The man who would be the nation's first Libertarian president needs to be polling at 15% in order to make the stage with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at the presidential debates that kick off next month. Gary Johnson is currently polling at 10% in the five polls that the debate commission is using to get its numbers, but with many voters looking at third-party candidates, that number has gone up 4 points in about a month and a half, and Politico notes it's giving Johnson some confidence. "We're optimistic we're going to actually get into the debates," he says. "We're spending money right now in many states, and in five states right now we're at 16%. So I'm just really optimistic."

"The object is to win outright," Johnson says. "If we go into the presidential debates with the polarization" associated with both Clinton and Trump, "we might actually run the table on all this." However, if he doesn't make it into the debate, he concedes, "yes, I would say game over." (More Gary Johnson stories.)