The fix is in
Rand Paul, it appears, will not be on the main stage at the next Republican debate. And has said he’d boycott the secondary debate. Glad he’s taking a stand. The debate is limited to the 6 highest polled candidates and Paul will not be there based on that criteria. Except, of course, he out polls Kasich, Christie and, in a few of the polls, Bush. They will be at the debate.
More polling data here.
Paul says it’s the GOP calling the shots here to narrow the field. But they’re making the wrong call. He polls higher. And Paul is correct, this will cost them libertarian voters. It will also cost Fox Business viewership. If Paul isn’t there, I won’t watch.
January 13th, 2016 at 9:44 pm
Too bad you’re a Paulian. But 3% doesn’t win any races, much as “L”ibertarians wish they would.
January 13th, 2016 at 9:53 pm
He’s definitely polling higher than two attendees and in half the polls, higher than 3. Wouldn’t be so egregious were that not the case. Or if they pulled all three of them too and left to those with 10% or more. Now, it just looks intentional.
January 13th, 2016 at 10:08 pm
It could cost the republicans the election but think they care? They are loyal only to the party as evidenced by their whoring out America for personal gain.
January 13th, 2016 at 10:57 pm
Most politicians of both parties, probably more Democrats, fear Liberty. I think maybe Paul finally disqualified himself with the party establishment when he recently said on a late night TV program, that he wanted ” the government to leave us the hell alone.” That radical American Revolutionary rhetoric was just too much for them.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.” –Thomas Jefferson
January 13th, 2016 at 11:57 pm
RP at this point should be making a deal with the candidate(s) most unappealing to the mainstream R’s and most appealing to the renegades (now who might that be?), and throw his decidedly renegade little l’s to them in exchange for a cabinet post where he can do his minimalist best to shrink some .gov
January 14th, 2016 at 8:26 am
Good to see that the circular logic of “you shouldn’t vote for third party candidates because they can’t win / third party candidates never win because no one votes for them” is already being trotted out.
I’d almost be disappointed if it weren’t.
January 14th, 2016 at 9:46 am
Only thing circular about a 3P candidate in the here and now is the file your vote would go in. Give me a candidate with the money and mojo to go the distance and I’ll give him/her/it a look. Nice theory, but try feeding the bulldog with it.
And really, ask the head Ryano and Nimrata Randhawa (call me Nikki) how their party’s candidates are doing and they’d quote you some low single-digit poll numbers.
Yeah, there’s a third party and right now it’s blowing the field away.
Trump/Cruz ’16
January 14th, 2016 at 10:44 am
If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think Kasich, Christie or Bush should be on the stage, either.
They should join Paul at the sidelines, hopefully working to move the overall cause forward.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:24 am
Rather than throwing a tantrum, he should have taken the smaller debate by storm and kicked ass with it.
What better way to get your ideas across than having only 3 other people on stage? USE IT!
But instead he pouted and will no show. Disappointing.
January 14th, 2016 at 11:28 am
This is pretty much the same thing they did to Gary Johnson last time, and for the same reasons.
And +1 to Linoge. Circular logic is circular.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:09 pm
Criteria is the plural form of criterion.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:38 pm
KM, yes he should go ahead and use what he has. I don’t usually watch the undercard debate, but would if Paul participated. He would get much more time to articulate his Constitutionalist and Liberty ideas.
January 14th, 2016 at 4:53 pm
The Republican Party will destroy itself before it allows Progressivism to be undone.