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Libertarian Adrian Wyllie got shut out from the governor's debate at Broward College on Wednesday, so he went to a Holiday Inn Express instead.

Wyllie planned to set up shop in a conference room, a production crew in tow, and answer the same questions posed to Republican Gov. Rick Scott and former-Republican-governor-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist. Wyllie planned to have his crew perform some technical wizardry and re-cut the debate to make it appear as if he were onstage. Then he planned to post it on the web.

Kind of poetic: A Libertarian taking liberties with reality to protest a debate co-sponsored by a press association that tramped down on free speech.

"The reason I'm being excluded has nothing to do with the public interest, and everything to do with protecting a corrupt, good-old-boy duopoly," Wyllie told me Wednesday.

One day earlier, a federal judge struck down Wyllie's bid to take part. The two groups sponsoring the debate (the Florida Press Association and Leadership Florida) set a 15-percent threshold in a September poll as the benchmark, and Wyllie who's been polling as high as 12 percent fell short.

"They keep moving the bar just out of reach of third-party candidates," Wyllie said. "Back in 2006, it was seven percent. Now it's 15 percent. If I was at 18 percent, I'm sure they'd move the threshold to 20 percent."

I feel bad for the guy and worse for democracy in general. And I feel especially ashamed that a press association which is supposed to support a free exchange of ideas acts more like a bouncer for the establishment, keeping out ideas that might be too different or radical.

"The major political parties and media insiders are controlling what Floridians can hear," Wyllie said. "If I was a fringe candidate that everyone could get a chuckle out of, they probably wouldn't mind. But the fact that I'd be the only one telling a lot of truth, that's what they're terrified of."

I'm not saying I like or agree with Wyllie's platform, which includes eradicating property taxes for homesteaded Floridians, slashing the state budget by 30 percent, blocking federal regulatory oversight of Florida-only businesses, legalizing marijuana, allowing gay marriage and granting unfettered access to guns. He told me that philosophically he'd be OK with legalized cocaine and prostitution, too.

I'm just saying that with all the negativity and scripted talking points coming from Scott and Crist, voters could have used Wyllie's fresh air. It would have been interesting and perhaps illuminating to see how Scott and Crist reacted to the live grenade in their midst. (UPDATE: Although this debate did give us plenty of unscripted fresh air, in the form of Crist's fan and the swirling controversy it triggered, with Scott initially refusing to take the stage at the start in protest.)

Continued here:
Blocked from debate, Wyllie finds room at the (Holiday) inn