Will More Candidates Be Excluded From Next GOP Debate ?

There is a definite possibility that even more candidates will be excluded from the next GOP presidential debate. That's because CNBC, the sponsor of the next debate, has said that no candidate will be allowed to debate unless they have at least 3% support in the polls released between September 17th and October 21st by NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, and Bloomberg. That means that while the last debate had 11 participants, the next one will have between 7 and 9 candidates.

The chart above shows the average (by RealClearPolitics) of the six polls taken in September. This shows that four candidates (Jindal, Santorum, Pataki, and Graham) would not be allowed to debate on the "big stage" -- just as before. But another four candidates (who have been allowed to debate on the "big stage") are in serious danger of being demoted to the "kiddie table". They are Rand Paul (2.3%), Chris Christie (3%), Mike Huckabee (3%), and John Kasich (3.3%).

All four are in danger of being excluded. And the latest poll released (by USA Today / Suffolk) shows that. None of the four were able to get up to 3% in it (see chart below). There's still three weeks to go, but these candidates need to start doing better.