The tell-me-again-why-this-exists kiddie table Republican presidential debate is getting some new blood in Thursday’s Fox Business Network debate. Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul have been demoted from the main event, which will now include a mere seven candidates: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. Fiorina has experience with the kiddie table, having started out there before being promoted, only to have her polling bump fade quickly when people got a better look at her. And both Fiorina and Paul have made it into a previous varsity debate thanks to the hosts tweaking inclusion criteria to benefit them.
Despite that earlier gift of inclusion, Rand Paul is not taking this demotion with grace. He’s sticking to his refusal to participate in the debate for which his poor polling qualifies him, in typically petulant style:
"We will not participate in anything that's not first-tier," Paul said. His campaign confirmed to POLITICO that he will sit out Thursday's debate.
Uh, Rand? Your campaign is not first-tier, but you’re participating in that. A statement from Paul’s campaign tried to frame this as antidemocratic oppression from the big bad media—“By any reasonable criteria Senator Paul has a top tier campaign. He will not let the media decide the tiers of this race and will instead take his message directly to the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa”—but again, we’re talking about his total lack of traction with voters. The media used to be all about him.
Paul is really looking to have a “nobody puts Baby in the corner” moment, but he doesn’t seem to have a Johnny Castle figure looking to pull him out of the corner and up under the spotlight. Voters definitely don't seem interested in taking on that role.
Given Paul’s tantrum, it looks like the kiddie table debate will feature just Fiorina, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee.