They Had A Debate (And Nobody Came)

I hear they had a Republican presidential candidates debate in South Carolina last night -- a debate that was carried live on Fox News. I think they are using the term "presidential candidates debate" pretty loosely. That's because no candidate that actually has a chance of getting the Republican nomination bothered to show up.

None of the front-runners (Romney, Huckabee, Trump, Palin, Gingrich) put in an appearance. They are evidently still trying to decide if they would stand a chance against President Obama or whether a run would just be a waste of time and money. And I guess the same goes for many of the wannabes (Huntsman, Bachmann, Daniels, Roemer) or the maybes (Christie, Giuliani, Perry), since they weren't there either.

So if the five frontrunners and five more wannabes didn't show up, then who did? Well, it was Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty, and Ron Paul. Paul is the only one that has topped 3% in any of the numerous polls done with Republicans this year, and he hasn't come close to breaking into double-digits. This was just a group of nobodies and this time next year none of them will even still be in the race, except maybe for Paul.

This wasn't a real debate. It was a colossal waste of time. I think it just shows how desperate the Republicans (and Fox News) are to have someone step forward and separate themselves from the pack. But it looks like it'll be a while before that happens (if at all). As a recent poll suggested, right now none of the candidates are exciting the Republican voters.

Let me know when they have a real debate.