Column: Tulsi Gabbard doesn’t qualify for next debate, but remains steadfast … to what end?

Barring a last-minute reality check, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District for seven years, will continue her run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Late last week Gabbard, who has declined to talk to Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporters about her political plans, told CBS that even after failing to qualify for this month’s national Democratic Party debate, she is still running for president.

“We are going to find ways to work around it (not getting into debate),” she said.

Asked if she would stay in the presidential race if she doesn’t qualify for the ensuing October debate, Gabbard said she would work to qualify.

Gabbard last week complained that the Democrats’ polling criteria were neither transparent nor fair.

“Crucial decisions on debate qualifications that impact the right of the American people to have the opportunity to participate fully in the Democratic process should not be made in secret by party bosses,” her campaign wrote in an Aug. 23 email, according to a Star-Advertiser report.

Democrats announced the rules for qualifying to appear in the national debate back in May, so this was not a capricious decision by party bosses.

Gabbard, a former state House and Honolulu City Council member, pledged she was running for president. Of course, the big question is, “Why?”

Gabbard wasn’t competitive the day she announced, and she remains so.

The Real Clear Politics website, which functions as a clearinghouse for national political news, keeps an average of all the recognized political polls. From May 16 to Aug. 6, the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Gabbard with a 22% unfavorable rating compared to a 12.5% favorable ranking. The average of national polls show her with 1.4% of the vote.

Still Gabbard is still pitching her platform for peace and for ending what she calls “regime-changing” wars.

“Will you stand with me to ensure no one — not the biased mainstream media, the DNC or power brokers in Washington — can shut down the voices of the people and the voices of peace?” she said in an email asking for campaign money.

For someone who complains that her party lacks rule-setting transparency, Gabbard could be a lot more open with her own backstory.

Her support for Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi are all question marks, as is the relationship she and her family have with the religious leader Chris Butler.

When asked by CBS that if she falters in her presidential bid, would she pick up a campaign for re-election, Gabbard danced around the question, saying: “I am focused on bringing my campaign to the people and bringing this message to them of a government of by and for the people … ”

Gabbard is on record saying she would support the Democratic ticket for president even if she is not on it, meaning she would not try to run as an independent.

There is little that is certain about Gabbard’s political future. But it just may be that her announced post- Labor Day appearance on Tuesday at Lorado’s Restaurant in Mason City, Iowa, might serve as the end point in her campaign.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.