The South Carolina GOP and FOX News have announced the official list of participants for their debate coming up on Thursday night, and they are:
Not exactly the roaring start to the primary season we have all been hoping for… on average, these five guys get around 10-12% combined in the national polls.
No Gingrich, no Romney, no Trump, no Huckabee, not even Bachmann signed up for this one. What I will be watching to see is if Pawlenty can manage to come across as a first tier candidate, or if being on stage with a bunch of third tier guys will diminish his image.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:23 pm
What a bunch of pansies
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I hate to break this to you guys, but Bachmann never was a serious candidate.
She won’t run.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:25 pm
This:
“if Pawlenty can manage to come across as a first tier candidate, or if being on stage with a bunch of third tier guys will diminish his image.”
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:25 pm
@2 neither was Huckabee or trump or gingrich
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Herman Cain beats him like a drum every time.
This is the worst case scenario for T-Paw.
He might be done after the Ames straw poll.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Mike out of this debate but headed to the RLC in the Big Easy next month:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0511/Huckabee_to_RLC.html
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:28 pm
4. I think Gingrich was always about 50/50, but you’re right about Trump and Huckabee.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I am actually pretty excited about this. It will be good to hear what some of the lower tier candidates have to offer. Unfortunately, I doubt I will get to watch it. Maybe it will be available online a week from now.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Why isn’t Bachmann there? Seems like a no brainer for her.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:30 pm
2
Michele Bachmann is the runningest runner there is.
She has them right where she wants them.
She will take this thing, you WATCH!!!!
HeHeHeHeHeHe!!!!!
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:30 pm
I predict people will be impressed with Herman Cain. The guy is good.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:31 pm
I thought Buddy Roemer was going to participate as well? I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t. It isn’t like they have poll number criteria for candidates.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Is Gingrich over? He doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of life at all over the last two months.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Politico sure is pimping Huck today. I wonder if they want him in the race or not.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:31 pm
9.
See #2.
mkthnx
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:33 pm
12. Roemer may not have made the cut in the polls. They had to score at least 1% in a certain number of polls.
He might not have made it.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:33 pm
15 – I think you may be right (for once). There is no excuse for her not to be there. Same with Gingrich.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:36 pm
17. You should copy and paste that post because I think you’re going to have to use it a lot in the future.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:37 pm
#15:
Ah, you’re right. Frankly, I don’t see why they would set 1% as a criteria. Former or current statewide or federal officers should be allowed to automatically participate in debates.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:50 pm
This is a fine group to have at an early, early debate. It’ll help all of them hone up on their debate skills and it will be interesting to see who stands out among this group. It will also provide Johnson a real opportunity to define himself as the more serious libertarian leaning candidate and differentiate himself from Ron Paul.
Honestly – I have a feeling Pawlenty and Cain will end up being the stand outs in the debate, but that’s me.
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Where is Karger in all of this…hes met all the requirements, granted I’ll admit hes fourth tier at best but hes filed, paid his fee, and has met the 1% threshold in the polls in which hes been included, excluding him and allowing Roemer to participate (not at 1%) is just wrong
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:00 pm
A debate is different then a stump speech…so there may be some uneven moments for Cain who has never been in this type of forum before.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:01 pm
This is embarrasing. We’ve already delayed the start of the campaign by nearly 100 days…I am sick and tired of candidates – Romney included – dragging their feet. The GOP needs to get serious and tell anyone who expects party support to get it together and start campaigning seriously.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:05 pm
24 – 2007 was an unusual year. I don’t think waiting until now is that unusual. I haven’t always followed things as closely as I did last cycle, but it always seemed like Ames was the big kickoff in the past. I don’t think it is necessary for things to start quite yet. It is still a fundraising period, not a campaigning period.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:06 pm
23 I mean
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:09 pm
#22 – I know it will be a different forum for Cain, maybe I’m just hopeful that he can hold his own in this format.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Expect the debate to a bunch of rambling, followed by rants of attacks on America by Ron Paul, followed by a nap by Pawlenty.
Am I going to watch it, probably. Am I going to turn it off after a minute, probably.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:26 pm
How is there a 19 pt spread on obama job approval on RCP? Bogus! I dont see how he gets a -1 from 5/2-5/3 or a +18, even on 5/2….the +9 from CNN looks about right with the poll being done solely on 5/2.
As far as the debate, Cain will crush them all…but I dont think we can split the black vote so sadly, as bad as it sounds, he doesnt have a real chance.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Cain will dominate this. Period.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Hey, I didn’t see Huckrubio’s #28
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Actually, this is more like it. Five candidates instead of the dozen or more that plagued the 2007 debates.
Sure, they are mainly third and fourth tier, but we will get to see if there is any life in them.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Fox is promoting it as the first important debate. It looks like the third string are in. They ought to let those guys do a monologue since they have so much time to kill. I also read that there was a $25,000 fee that had to be paid to participate. That might have kept some of the 4th string out.
I think Bachmann is waiting to see what Palin does. It seems to be the only
logical reason for waiting until June to establish a exploratory committee.
She should be forming a committee right now and making a decision in June.
Interesting thing is Palin said the important element for a presidential candidate was executive experience. That clearly eliminated Bachmann.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:35 pm
31. I agree, and maybe they can knock eachother out early so the strongest actually has a chance against the top tier and make for a more intesersting race between romney, daniels, possibly huck (still hoping he gets in) and then 1 other from the lower tiers.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Craig (for huck) Where are you located again? Huckabee event in my town on tuesday (10th) to raise money for a new womans shelter run by the crisis pregnancy center and there are still tickets left.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:46 pm
#31:
I agree Mark. What point was there in 2007-2008 to have candidates like Romney, Giuliani, McCain, Huckabee or Thompson sharing the stage with people like Tancredo, Jim Gilmore, or Duncan Hunter. I think one of the best debate of the campaign was the one right before New Hampshire when it was just the top 5 contenders.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:51 pm
TPAW’S goal is to be seen as Presidential to the GOP voters on Thursday night. Bachmann is not running…she has only hired some travel agents so far.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:54 pm
The good thing about having these debates with just the lower tiered candidates right now is that hopefully some of them will knock each other out by the end of the summer so we don’t have to have a debate with 12 candidates up on the dais like we did last cycle. I think these highly populated debates are a waste of time. There is no time for any substantive answers and someone will always whine about being slighted (Paul last time). 5 people is about the most you can have and have it be informative at all.
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:02 pm
The only difference between TPAW and the so called 1st tier is that the 1st tier is full of underachieving 2nd timers. Get a grip guys you sound like a bunch of Royals looking down at the commoners.
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:23 pm
This is a *very* fiscally conservative group of republicans. Should be interesting.
Prediction: Most of the press coverage will mention Mitt Romney’s name more than half of the folks actually in the debate.
May 3rd, 2011 at 11:54 pm
Huckarubio,
I’m in Newport Beach, CA.
May 4th, 2011 at 1:18 am
Watch for Herman Cain to overtake Pawlenty, and then Bachmann, due to the strength and clarity of his policy positions.
If you are a fan of Pawlenty, listen carefully to what he doesn’t say, especially on energy policy, to see why this otherwise fine gentleman is sinking slowly.
Also watch for Rick Santorum to “break out of boring” and run surprisingly strongly – he’s running to be the captain of the starship “Moral Enterprise”, and his speeches are increasinly interesting and passionate. Key taglines “The government does not trust the people to make their own choices – I trust you” and “America is a Moral Enterprise”.
May 4th, 2011 at 1:21 am
Also, Ron Paul is right on the issues, even more so as our governemnt loses all sense of morality and constitutional limits, but he won’t collect enough votes outside his fan base.
Meanwhile, Gary Johnson has bad hair, and always leads with his left foot: “Hi, I’m Gary, and I want you to do drugs!”
May 4th, 2011 at 2:17 am
“This is embarrasing. We’ve already delayed the start of the campaign by nearly 100 days…I am sick and tired of candidates – Romney included – dragging their feet. The GOP needs to get serious and tell anyone who expects party support to get it together and start campaigning seriously.”
Six months is plenty of time to get to know the candidates. Unless you eat and drink politics you are not going to watch this debate no matter who is in it. Everybody is waiting on Huckabee. It is his to lose (and he might)! Even Romney is hesitating to act like a full-fledged candidate. He still hasn’t been to Iowa. By this time in 2007, he had been running radio ads! already, I believe. Comparing himself to Reagan over and over and over again. Might be one reason he lost Iowa – overexposure. Where is Gingrich? Not in Iowa. No Palin, hardly any Santorum. Pawlenty is the only one trying to win this thing (using the Anti-Huck standard). Kudos to T-Paw.
May 4th, 2011 at 2:18 am
Cain thinks very fast on feet and has great delivery. Pawlenty also is very smooth and doesn’t get off-kilter, but doesn’t have the intensity of Herman Cain, he is more so a feel-good laid back campaigner. I think it will come down to Cain vs. Pawlenty in this debate.
May 4th, 2011 at 7:41 am
2. and nor will Palin.
May 4th, 2011 at 7:44 am
43. No one is waiting on Huckie. No. One. Romney is coming in on his own time. I assure you, if Huckie showed up to this, his fox gig would be gonzo. So, to rake in as much cash as possible, to pay for his new wasteline – er lifestyle, he holds off. AND when Romney announces, and knowing that Obama’s ratings are starting to rise a tad, huckie will announce that he just can’t see a path to victory, and will be working for Obama’s re election, because you know… can’t have a Romney in the White House, now can we?
May 4th, 2011 at 7:47 am
32. and eliminates her as well.