FOX Business Network Announces GOP Debate Lineup

Ferry noted that one of the polls used to determine the debate participates – the NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll – only listed ten candidates as options rather than the full GOP field.

Newsweek reports that the cutoff to qualify for the main stage at the upcoming November, 10 debate is cut and dry.

Rounding out the main debate stage will be former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen.

Instead, Huckabee and Christie will appear in the secondary debate, which occurs immediately prior to the prime-time event.

Christie greeted the news nearly with a shrug, and then pointed to a video of himself talking about substance abuse that has gone viral.

“Listen, the bottom line is that you need to be on a stage and debating”.

As Republicans look to winnow down a crowded field of presidential hopefuls, next Tuesday’s fourth televised debate will offer a shake-up in what’s become a topsy-turvy primary season.

Huckabee echoed that sentiment after the lineups were announced.

As I’ve said since the CNBC debate, the best way to improve the overall quality of the debate was to reduce the number of participants, so reducing the main stage to eight candidates should actually allow the reporters to get detailed responses from the candidates, assuming they’ve learned something from the disgusting time management that the CNBC moderators did, which made that debate an overall disaster. After the Milwaukee debate, just two GOP debates remain before the Iowa caucuses. And he is now in ninth place with 2 percent, according to an averaging of polls by the nonpartisan website RealClearPolitics.com.

“It’s really not a setback”, Christie.

Mr. Graham’s campaign released a statement after the announcement expressing disappointment in the network’s choice of polling. “But more than anything he’s spending the vast majority of his time up in New Hampshire doing the retail politics that matter in that state”. “This national focus diminishes the significance of the Primary process”. On Thursday, he dialed back his confidence, saying on Fox Business television that all that mattered was that he’s on a debate stage, if not the main one.

“It’s been unfortunate”, said Duprey, a Republican national committeeman from New Hampshire.

The gripe of every sidelined campaign was that, in a year when pollsters have been caught short in race after race, national polling has been prioritized over state polling to cast the televised debates. It still didn’t seem like Christie will be our next president, or even the GOP nominee, but it was something. “This is all new territory”, Duprey said. And Hillary Rodham Clinton was leading Sen. Barack Obama by about 20 points.