Nobody likes being assigned to the kiddie table. But the 2016 candidates who will be appearing at the bottom-tier “happy hour” GOP debate Thursday afternoon, rather than the primetime event, are doing their best to take the news in stride while managing to throw a little shade at the rejection.
Those meanies at Fox News and the Republican Nation Committee “should not be picking winners and losers” but who wants to part of that “celebrity debate,” “Trump debacle,” anyway, when there will be a “serious exchange of ideas” at the 5 p.m. showing?
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told his Facebook followers to “prepare” for the Donald Trump Debate/Debacle, but to watch his turn on stage “to hear real debate about real issues.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry took a similar line, tweeting that he looks forward to being on the earlier debate “for what will be a serious exchange of ideas & positive solutions to get America back on track.”
I look forward to being @FoxNews 5pm debate for what will be a serious exchange of ideas & positive solutions to get America back on track.
— Rick Perry (@GovernorPerry) August 4, 2015
Perry is perhaps been the loudest critic among the 2016 GOP field of Trump’s antics.
Some candidates and their supporters shifted their frustration towards the system by which the field was divided, arguing that the polls national used by Fox and the RNC awarded media showmanship over legitimate candidacies.
“The debate in Cleveland is all about a celebrity,” surmised a super PAC supporting Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in an ad posted online Tuesday.
Carly Fiorina blamed her absence from the prime-time debate on the fact that she is “not a professional politician.”
“National polls measure, among other things, name ID. About 40 percent of Republicans have heard my name,” she told Morning Joe Wednesday. “In other words, the vast majority of Republican voters, let alone Americans, still don’t know who I am. So that’s not unexpected considering I am not a professional politician.”
There was nothing passive in former Sen. Rick Santorum’s response to the news, via the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel. His campaign spokesman called the entire process “incredibly flawed” and “preposterous.”
Santorum spox on the debate snub pic.twitter.com/pW8mYRSCv0
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) August 4, 2015
Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) rejected the idea that debates needed to be split up in the first case.
“I would have rather have been with everyone else,” Pataki told NewsmaxTV, arguing that the New Hampshire forum Monday evening that included most the major candidates — besides, notably, Donald Trump — “went extremely well.”
“Not Ready For Prime Time”
Ve hier at ze Schadenfreude Institut vill be monitorring zis ongoink egzample von impeccable schadenfreude mit der clozest attention. Danke shoen, Herren Trump und Priebus.
Carly Fiorina: “In other words, the vast majority of Republican voters, let alone Americans, still don’t know who I am. So that’s not unexpected considering I am not a professional politician.”
There’s also the fact that those Americans who do know who you are don’t like you.
But all 17 of them are not yet ready for prime time, except Trump, who already had a prime time show.*
*Not to be taken as an endorsement of Donald Trump, just stating a fact.
In the end it may be an advantage being in a debate without Trump.
Trump is a scene-stealer and will grab at least 50% of the talking time during the show/debate and 80% of the attention after the show/debate.