CNN’s Debate Criteria Unfair to Carly Fiorina
At this rate, Carly Fiorina will hold the dubious distinction of being the strongest primary candidate excluded from a presidential-nomination debate in recent memory.
In the unwieldy Republican presidential field, where attention is as important as money, there was supposed to be a formula for an under-appreciated candidate to break out.
It went like this: Excel in the second-tier, undercard Fox debate early in August, get a bump in the polls to break into the top 10 candidates, and arrive on the main stage for the next debate, hosted by CNN in September.
Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, unquestionably has done the first two, but the last may be beyond her power. It requires overcoming CNN debate criteria that couldn’t be more harmful to her if she had shot CNN honcho Jeff Zucker’s dog.
CNN tried its best back in May to come up with fair, transparent standards for who will occupy the ten slots in its prime-time debate. It’s just that in the real world they make no sense.
Consider the perversity of the CNN criteria. They will almost certainly exclude Fiorina, even though she is seventh in the current RealClearPolitics national polling average, ahead of John Kasich, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and Chris Christie, among others; even though she tied for seventh in CNN’s own national poll in mid-August; and even though she has been surging in the early states, popping up to third place in the latest Iowa and New Hampshire polls, ahead of both Jeb Bush and Scott Walker.
At this rate, Carly Fiorina will hold the dubious distinction of being the strongest primary candidate excluded from a presidential-nomination debate in recent memory, although she will get the consolation prize of the CNN undercard event.
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Source: CNN’s Debate Criteria Unfair to Carly Fiorina | National Review Online
