A culling of GOP presidential candidates
If the candidates in this year's overlarge Republican field are not be ready to drop out on their own, the networks will cull the field themselves.
Witness the cozier stage for Tuesday's GOP presidential debate on Fox Business Channel.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee have been demoted, relegated or voted off the island -- depending which metaphor your prefer -- for not breaking a 2.5 percent average in four recent national polls. And since a candidate needed to notch at least 1 percent in those polls to make the undercard, we say sayonara to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki. The Tuesday order will be as follows:
Main stage: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul and John Kasich.
Kids' table: Christie, Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum.
Christie is not whining about it, at least not on Twitter.
Huckabee was a little punchier, but expressed the same basic theme.
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's demotion in the presidential debate hierarchy comes as his campaign is actually gaining ground -- at least, in New Hampshire. He's been helped by this extended video on drug addiction, which has gone viral:
The Washington Post puts it in the larger context of a Republican shift on a once-taboo topic:
"She went through hell," he said, according to the Huffington Post's Scott Conroy and Jon Strauss. He repeated as much in an interview with MSNBC later Thursday.
Also on Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) shared on CNN that time he tried to save his half sister, who struggled with addiction her whole life, from a crack house.
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Gainesville attorney Ashley Bell,
one of Georgia's most prominent black Republicans, is hosting a presidential candidate forum on race and criminal justice reform in Columbia, S.C., this month. And unlike most cattle calls, this one is bipartisan,
:
The 2015 Presidential Justice Forum is being organized by the 20/20 Leaders of America, a bipartisan group of black mayors, police officers, and other leaders. Each of the candidates vying for the Republican and Democratic nomination was invited to participate in the event, which will be held Nov. 21 at historically black Allen University. BET will livestream the forum, and Jeff Johnson will moderate.
Co-Chair Ashley Bell said the 20/20 Club felt that criminal justice was the "premier issue" in the black community heading toward the 2016 election. During the question and answer session, he said organizers hope to hear what sort of progress each candidate would commit to in their first term on issues such as the militarization of police and community policing.
"These issues have not gotten a fair shake in the public discourse," he said.
Bell told Buzzfeed that he has reached out to more campaigns to join the fun, including Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
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No, that was not a typo. Georgia Republican Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue did put out a press release Thursday praising the Obama administration.
The president announced his intention to yank duty-free status for South African goods under a free trade agreement after South Africa refused to take down trade barriers for U.S. agricultural products, including poultry -- a huge industry in Georgia. Isakson and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., have been beating the drum on South African poultry for a while, and now they have the Obama administration hammer on their side.
The joint statement among the four senators from Georgia and Delaware reads:
"We applaud the administration for holding South Africa accountable for failing to eliminate unwarranted barriers to exports of American poultry, as they agreed to do earlier this year. It is unfortunate that this action must be taken, but South Africa has repeatedly failed to implement the deal reached this summer and missed a key deadline last month to finalize the trade protocol and health certificate for U.S. poultry. South Africa does not deserve to receive benefits under AGOA as long as they refuse to drop unfair trade policies that have effectively slammed the door on American chicken imports for over a decade. There is still time to address these issues, and we hope the president's action today spurs South Africa to open their market to American poultry immediately."
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Close advisers of new U.S. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan are known as the "Jedi Council," according to an interesting look by Daniel Newhauser at National Journal that includes important information about the breakfast habits of Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell, a Ryan pal:
"We're just kindred souls who got together sometimes to discuss the topic of the day, sometimes to discuss bigger issues," Price said. "Each of us have our own policy passions and have a desire together to assist in whatever way we're able to move the country in a better direction."
There's also another key difference from Boehner's meetings: "8:30 in the morning is a little early for Merlot. I don't think any of us have ever smoked," Hensarling said. Price added, "He got us to start eating Greek yogurt … and granola and the like. So he's very influential."
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
