For the Record's week in politics: The art of debate (or lack thereof)
Happy Saturday, For the Record peeps! We don't want to keep you from the beautiful Saturday you have planned (#sleepingin), so let's get right down to the flavors of the week.
THE ART OF DEBATE (OR LACK THEREOF)
Fox Business News and the Wall Street Journal announced Thursday the lineup for next week's debate, and only eight candidates will appear in #GOPDebate 4.0's prime time slot: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb(!) Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Rand Paul. Left out in the cold/happy hour debate: Chris Christie (supposedly one of the rising stars from 3.0), Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum. Wishing they could simply be there: Lindsey Graham and George Pataki.
Here's the thing: No one seems to be very happy about this process. Even before the lineup was announced, Carson, Graham and Cruz all called for changes and Trump said he'd put his negotiator hat on for future debates. Now, post announcement, the candidates left out have cried foul and Trump says Christie and Huckabee should get to play on the main stage. Will anything actually come out of it? Well, given that we only have three days between now and then, we're going to say probably not.
MARCO'S THE CREAM OF THE CROP
What? A more establishment-type Republican has found his way to the top of the food chain? That's what the political experts who weigh in on Paste BN's GOP Power Rankings say. Rubio's strong performance in the #GOPDebate 3.0 brought him to the top of the list. As the Donald has told us repeatedly, it pays to be a winner! And, predictably, Trump is not pleased about this particular champ, and he's started pulling the punches: "Marco is overrated."
GOTTA BEAT 'EM ALL, HILLARY
We spend so much time talking about the Republican primary (see above two items) that you sometimes forget that there's a whole general election to go after these shenanigans are over. (OK, fine, we never actually forget. But wouldn't it be nice?) So what does the post-primary world actually look like? A new poll from NBC/Wall Street Journal found that Hillary Clinton would tie with Ben Carson. And she would beat the rest: Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Jeb(!) Bush. Interestingly, Feel the Bernie Sanders would beat Trump by a wider margin than Clinton would. Still, voters are fickle and hypothetical situations aren't real and Election Day 2016 is exactly a year from tomorrow(!).
BEN CARSON: FICTION WRITER?
Back in the day, Ben Carson was an angry young man prone to violence who could have gone to West Point on a full scholarship if he wanted to. Or was he? That's all coming into question this week. Two published accounts have anonymous people saying they have no memories of Carson's violent episodes. On this, Carson (sort of) defends himself: "If you choose not to believe it, if it doesn’t fit the narrative that you want, that’s fine." But another part of his story is simply not true; Politico revealed on Friday that Carson did not actually get a scholarship to West Point. His campaign was forced to admit that he never applied. Some say that this is enough to topple the front-runner. We say that it's a weird time and a weird election cycle, and we'll leave it at that.
RIP, FRED THOMPSON
And now, a moment of silence for Fred Thompson, former senator, "Law and Order" actor and 2008 presidential candidate. We tip our collective hat to you, security, unity and prosperity, sir.
DON'T FORGET
The Donald is hosting SNL tonight! This is really happening, and who knows what it's going to look like. So let's livetweet this stuff up. For the Record's Jessica Estepa will be there for you when the rain starts to pour...on Twitter, anyway. And on East Coast time.
And since it seems important to reiterate this: Really, Martin O'Malley, we do know who you are...even if some other Millenials don't.
We'll see you Monday morning in your inboxes,