I like how Ed describes the kiddie table debate that CNN will be holding just prior to their big Republican debate next Wednesday:
The second-tier or Happy Hour or Kiddie Table debate, whatever you choose to call it, to be held immediately before the main event, is going to be a pretty sad affair. You’ve got Rick Perry, whose campaign cannot rub two nickels together. You’ve got Rick Santorum, who more than ever looks like he’s operating in a time warp. You’ve got Lindsey Graham, whose own South Carolina Republicans overwhelmingly want him to get out of the race, and whose mission to destroy Rand Paul seems a bit overkillish. You’ve got George Pataki, another time-warp nobody. And you’ve got Bobby Jindal, who will presumably use the debate to fire off quips about Donald Trump’s hair. It sorta looks like one of those obligatory local public television Other Voices debates at four in the morning where the Prohibition and Socialist Workers and Larouche candidates get to strut their stuff.
It almost seems pointless to hold this debate at all. I guess it’s a courtesy and there is some potential for one of these also-rans to jump start their campaign. But the real question seems to me to be whether anyone other than Trump, Carson, and Bush can do anything in the real debate to get themselves to be part of the actual horserace.
