Yes it’s that time again when all the hopeful/wanna be/ has been Presidential candidates attempt to sell their souls for your heart, mind and checkbook to stay afloat among an overcrowded cast of characters to be your next President of the United States.
That’s right one and all, beginning this August some of your favorite Cable News talking heads will be pre-empted for one night a month for the next eight months so pundits can get paid to analyze everything from the tie of a candidate to on stage water consumption and possibly even what the candidates actually said.
To be fair, only the Republican National Committee has actually scheduled their televised primary debates as the Democratic National Committee will not hold a single televised debate till... um... till.. Uh, well there are no dates listed yet just a notation of “*tentative date, not confirmed” per the uspresidentialelectionnews.com website.
The DNC’s so-called scheduling issue is simple to explain; it gives them plenty of time to borrow the Carnival House of Mirrors prop so all can watch Hillary Clinton debate her past, current, and future self to millions across the country.
OK, that’s not fair to the DNC, but then again it’s all cheers for the RNC as they realized (thanks to a 2013 Autopsy) that 2012’s 27 scheduled televised primary debates was just overkill to the voting public. Not to mention the murder of the networks ratings and advertising budgets.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I pondered aloud about how would the RNC fix their “candidates” issue for the upcoming primary debate cycle?
By “candidates” issue I mean the claustrophobic field of individuals who will inform the viewers they’re the right one to represent the GOP, why the others suck, and then by the end of the cycle backtrack to endorse the victor as the true candidate of choice even though they had stated prior that the individual sucked.
Personally, I don’t see a problem with having too many candidates, truly I never did. My complaint has always been about the quality of the candidates. Seriously, I know I’m being a political d*ck about this, but two-thirds of those running for President in 2016 know full well their chances are slim and are looking at their future to bank more contractual money either in television and/or print or a power trip when they return to their day jobs. The other one-third actually have legitimate claim to move about the country to spew their will amongst the people.
As of today, there’s a possible GOP candidate count of 20 individuals lining up, trying to be heard amongst the many, hoping to get equal amounts of face time in the Media. And the primary debates are the best place to meet the candidate, right?
Wrong! Well for 2012 it was wrong but for the moment in 2016 the problem is fixed.
RNC head honcho Reince Pribus had mentioned over the past year or so about a “political bracket” style debate calendar, having different candidates at different debates to give everyone a chance to be heard. As time passed he did the next best thing imaginable. To take the pressure of candidates and their Big Money backers banging on his door, he decided to let the networks decide who gets to play and who gets to stay (out).
Respectfully both FOX and CNN were granted the first two televised debates, with each running a different type of debate docket fully supported by the RNC. Hey, it says so on their website!
FOX has chosen to only invite the Top 10 polling candidates to their August 6 televised debate, while CNN decided to allow all to speak during a two event broken down by polling numbers.
I love this idea! Yes that’s right I said I love this idea for many reasons, however I believe CNN did the best for the candidates. I can also understand FOX’s one night event, as primaries do not do well in ratings, so with the abbreviated commercial breaks for a night, bills don’t get paid. And of course, they don’t want to upset the ratings of their coveted much bragged about 800p-1000p slot.
I gotta wonder which poll/polls will be used, because if they use the latest Quinnipiac Poll there is not a true front runner among a group of candidates.
Well to be fair, according to the Q Poll “Don’t Know/Undecided” actually leads with 20%, with Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker are all tied at 10%. Funny little side note about “Don’t Know/Undecided” as it was in 1976 Iowa Straw Poll that helped propel Jimmy Carter as the Democratic candidate, because he was polled at #2 and his campaign capitalized on it by saying he was the true winner.
But that was Iowa and I’m talking the current Q poll which has Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Chris Christie, and Carly Fiorina completing out what would be considered the “Top 10” candidates that would fill out the FOX debate if it were held today.
Sadly, it leaves John Kasich, Rick Santorum, George Pataki, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, Rick Perry and Lindsey Graham staying home.
But look hard at the list of GOP candidates. Cruz, Paul, Rubio, Carson, Fiorina, Huckabee, Santorum, Graham and Pataki have all announced their intentions with Bush, Walker, Christie, Perry, Jindal, Kasich and Trump waiting it out.
In my opinion, only those that have announced deserve to be on stage for the FOX one night stand, if one is to be “Fair and Balanced,” or CNN’s first night event. Those fence sitters need not apply or wait till the next day.
Yes I know August is still a few months away so the favorability of a candidate can go up and down. And I just realized I broke my cardinal rule of never writing more than the average person can read during the average bowel movement, so thus we end my excitement of Political Plinko.
That’s it, slap the political tap on the Bishops Finger and pay your political tab before a candidate knocks on your door
CHEERS!
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