Latest polls hint who will be on main stage for first GOP debate
The first Republican primary debate is just four days away and several GOP candidates are on the edge of making or missing the the cut.
While Fox has not released which five polls it will use or at what point it will make a decision, Real Clear Politics’ average of national polls offers a picture of who will and who won’t make it to the 9pm eastern primary debate event on Thursday.
10 candidates will be featured in the debate with all others being offered a pre-debate forum that will air at 5pm.
Of the ten spots, eight look relatively solid. Trump, Walker, Bush, Carson, Cruz, Huckabee, Rubio and Paul all appear ready to make the cut.
Jinday, Santorum, Fiorina and Graham are set to be featured in the pre-debate event, if they decide to take part at all.
Three candidates are left jockeying for the 9th and 10th spot in the main debate. Kasich, Christie and Perry are closely packed with between 2.5 and 3.5% of the polling average.
All three of the on-the-bubble candidates have seen relatively stable polling numbers for weeks with their share of the polls varying by only a point or two.
Who ends up with one of the last two spots will likely come down to Fox’s choice of polls.
So instead of the Leftwing media picking our candidates we now have a pseudo Rightwing media picking our candidates? Perhaps viewers should boycott the debates and We The People chose the candidate.
The debate forum is a rather complicated one and further and requires that each participant be given equal time. It is further complicated by the sheer number of candidates. IF all 17 were only given a total of 10 minutes each it would take just short of 3 hrs. and IF viewers actually watched it all, very little information would be possible…..and no help in ‘we the people’ deciding who the majority chooses.
The ‘undercard’ is first and frankly I believe, more revealing.and relaxed. The polls are taken by both the more liberal and more conservative independent private business owners and random. I have been polled a few times and questions are so well crafted it’s almost impossible to 2nd guess which is which. I would contend that the participants are picked by ‘we the people;…..not the media
If our personal choice is not included, we need to plan to work extra hard between now and the primaries. AND watch thoes that are to learn all we can about the competition.