Christie makes cut for first GOP debate

Republican voters won't cast actual ballots for months, but the winnowing of a historically large field of contenders for the party's presidential nomination began Tuesday afternoon - in the offices of Fox News.

At 6 p.m., the results were announced on Bret Baier's show: the 10 GOP candidates who, based on national polls, earned a place on the stage Thursday night in Cleveland for the first prime-time televised debate of the campaign.

As expected, celebrity businessman Donald Trump, the leader in the polling average with 23.4 percent, will be at the center of the array of lecterns. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (12 percent) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (10.2 percent) rounded out the top three.

Also getting coveted spots were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (6.6 percent); Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon (5.8 percent); Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (5.4 percent); Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (5.4 percent); Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (4.8 percent); Gov. Christie; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Christie averaged 3.4 percentage points in the polls Fox used to cull the herd, and Kasich was at 3.2 percent.

Christie celebrated his acceptance onto the main stage at a fund-raiser Tuesday night at the Asbury Park Convention Hall, as he rallied hundreds of supporters by railing against President Obama and pledging to "kick 'hope and change' out" in 2016.

"We're going to bring a little Jersey to the campaign and the White House as well," Christie said, drawing loud applause as he continued, "I think you all know this. That's going to start on Thursday night in Cleveland, Ohio."

Seven lower-polling contenders will appear in an undercard event that Fox will broadcast at 5 p.m.

They are former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (1.8 percent); former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (1.4 percent); Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (1.4 percent); businesswoman Carly Fiorina (1.3 percent); South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (0.7 percent); former New York Gov. George Pataki (0.6 percent); and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (0.2 percent).

The main forum, airing from 9 to 11 p.m. on Fox, is expected to draw a large national audience, providing an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

Republican National Committee officials decided to limit the number of preprimary debates to avoid the free-for-all of 2012, when there were about two dozen. The networks were left to decide who would participate.

Campaigns and grassroots activists in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire alike have complained that Fox had been granted king-making power at the expense of the party's grass roots.

"While Fox is taking a lot of heat, the RNC deserves as much blame for sanctioning this process," Santorum campaign spokesman Matt Beynon said in a statement. "They should not be picking winners and losers. That's the job of the voters."

Santorum was the runner-up in 2012 to eventual nominee Mitt Romney, winning caucuses or primaries in 11 states. Perry was governor of Texas for four terms, and Fiorina, who headed Hewlett-Packard, was the first female CEO of a Fortune 50 company.

The blow may be especially acute for Santorum. He raised just $600,000 in his first quarter as an announced candidate, one of the lowest totals in the field, and has recently reshuffled his campaign staff.

"Eight years ago, Rudy Giuliani was leading the pack, and everyone was writing John McCain's political obituary. National polls are meaningless in August," Santorum's campaign statement said.

Fox said it based its decision on polls from CBS, Bloomberg, Fox, Monmouth University, and Quinnipiac University. Those organizations all conducted live interviews of voters on landlines and cellphones, selected by random digit dialing, the network said. Results were based on self-identified Republican voters.

For the last month, Trump has dominated the Republican campaign, surging in the polls on a torrent of harsh rhetoric against illegal immigration and frequent insults directed at his rivals, whom he has called "losers" and "dummies." Trump said Sen. John McCain, a POW during the Vietnam War, was not a hero because he got captured.

"This is a temporary sort of loss of sanity, but we're going to come back to our senses and look for somebody serious to lead the country at some point," Paul, the Kentucky senator, said recently on CNN.

Analysts and strategists said Trump would be the obvious center of attention in the debate - Will he say something controversial? - as well as a delicate problem for his rivals on stage.

"The Donald is the show, but the story is who, with their limited amount of time, emerges as the adult while not totally turning off those Trump voters who eventually will want a candidate who can win," said Daniel F. McElhatton, a Democratic strategist based in Philadelphia.

The debate "will be watched more for its entertainment value than its political value," said William Rosenberg, professor of political science at Drexel University. "People want to see how Trump will act and how he'll be treated. Will it be a train wreck?"

In any case, the debate, though it is scheduled to be two hours long, is fleeting - and it's axiomatic that it is hard to "win" a modern presidential debate, or even make an impression.

The debate rules will allow the candidates to give one-minute answers to questions posed by three Fox moderators. Candidates mentioned by a rival will get 30 seconds of rebuttal time. Each candidate will get a one-minute closing statement, and questions will be posed via Facebook, a cosponsor, several times during the debate.

Then there are moderators' questions and breaks in the broadcast.

"The candidates may get five minutes apiece, if you have some personalities that suck the air out of the room," Rosenberg said. "The time may not be equally distributed."

When: 9 p.m. Thursday

TV: FOX29

Where: Cleveland

Moderators: Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace

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