Everyone to Get a Participation Trophy
The first Republican primary debate, scheduled for Aug. 6 in Cleveland and hosted by Fox News, is being turned into one of those “everyone gets a participation trophy” deals the feel good lefties so love, with extra forums now scheduled to give third tier candidates like Jim Gilmore or Rick Santorum and his one fan in Iowa (reportedly named Peggy) a thrill, and one horse Rick and the parade of no-chance-in-hell candidates a day in the sunshine.
Previously, Fox had announced that only the top 10 candidates in an average of the five biggest national polls that week will be allowed to participate. This has upset the other 204 candidates who are not likely to make the top 10 by early August.....
“What Fox is attempting to do, and is actually bragging about doing, is a real threat to the first-in-the-nation primary,” publisher Joseph W. McQuaid said, according to the newspaper. “Fox boasts that it will 'winnow' the field of candidates before New Hampshire gets to do so. That isn't just bad for New Hampshire, it's bad for the presidential selection process by limiting the field to only the best-known few with the biggest bankrolls.”
Surely American democracy is on the path to oblivion if our nation is deprived of six extra months of Chris Christie attending rubber-chicken dinners at the Elks Lodge in Nashua. So Fox News announced Thursday it will also hold a forum in Cleveland on Aug. 6 for those candidates who don’t make the cut for the real debate. So now the really unpopular candidates like Lindsey Graham and Bobby Jindal have to decide if they will participate in the Fox forum or the Union Leader forum. Or, option three, they could all quit politics and go live fulfilling lives doing something productive.
And of course this all raises the question: Who the hell besides political reporters and comedy writers will care about anything these people have to say in the dead of summer six months before the primary? The question practically answers itself......
And of course this all raises the question: Who the hell besides political reporters and comedy writers will care about anything these people have to say in the dead of summer six months before the primary? The question practically answers itself......
(Bloomberg)