The news that Rand Paul's ever-lackluster poll numbers may bump him down to junior varsity status in the Fox Business-hosted Republican presidential debate three weeks from now is not sitting well with Rand Paul.
“I won’t participate in any kind of second-tier debate,” the Kentucky senator said on Kilmeade and Friends. “We’ve got a first-tier campaign. I’ve got 800 precinct chairman in Iowa. I’ve got a 100 people on the ground working for me. I’ve raised 25 million dollars. I’m not gonna let any network or anybody tell me we’re not a first-tier campaign. [...]
All of that, and he still can't get enough people to say they'll vote for him to put him in the "real" debate? Surely, this is all the media's fault.
“I frankly just won’t be told by the media which tier I’m in, and we’re not willing to accept that, because we’re a first-tier campaign and we’re in it to win it and we won’t be told that we’re in a tier that can’t win,” he said.
That's all fine and good, but what's he going to do? Walk out on stage and refuse to leave? Wheel in his own podium? Filibuster? I'm not sure that Rand Paul is well enough liked by the powers-that-be to get the rules changed just so he can have one more moment in the sun.
That rant, though: He's still big! It's the networks that got small! He's ready for his close-up, Mr. Fox Business Network!
Yikes.