America
Here's why Bobby Jindal may not be in first presidential debate
By
By Arun Kumar Washington, July 23
Indian-American Republican
presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal faces the prospect of being relegated
to a secondary forum in the first presidential debate set for August 6
as the prime time main event is limited to only the top 10 candidates.
To
be hosted by Fox News, the inaugural Republican primary debate in
Cleveland would be limited to the top 10 candidates in an average of
five national polls with the remaining six featuring in a separate forum
before the prime time main event.
Fox News has not yet disclosed
which specific polls it will consider, but if the debate were held on
Thursday, Louisiana governor Jindal, who has polled between one and two
percent in recent polls is likely to be relegated to the 5 p.m. forum.
So
would likely be former senator Rick Santorum, Ohio governor John
Kasich, former HP chief executive Carly Fiorina, Senator Lindsey Graham
and former New York governor George Pataki.
The latest Public
Policy Polling survey released Wednesday puts real estate mogul Donald
Trump (19 percent) at the top followed by Wisconsin governor Scott
Walker (17 percent) and former Florida governor Jeb Bush (12 percent)
in the third place.
Senator Mark Rubio (10 percent), neurosurgeon
Ben Carson (10 percent), former Arkansas governor Huckabee (8
percent), Senator Rand Paul (4 percent), Senator Ted Cruz (4 percent)
and New Jersey governor Chris Christie (3 percent) make up the rest of
the top 10.
With Trump attracting more support than ever before,
the fortunes of bottom six - Kasich, Christie, Perry, Santorum, Jindal
and Fiorina - are fluctuating.
ABC/Washington Post pollsters
showed they collectively captured 12 percent of supporters on Monday,
but in May the outlets found they got 18 percent.
In the latest Fox News poll, the sextet held 9 percent of the vote. Before Trump's ascension, Fox's number was 16 percent.
Meanwhile,
Jindal's presidential campaign pollster said that a new Quinnipiac
University poll released on Wednesday found that Jindal has a huge
margin between voters who view him favourably and those that view him
unfavorably.
According to the new poll, 51 percent like Jindal
and only 7 percent don't. The rest say they don't know enough about him,
according to Nola.com.
The Quinnipiac poll did not say whether they asked voters which Republican candidate they preferred in the overall race.
But the Jindal's campaign said that healthy favourability ratings indicate better ballot performance down the road.
"We're
happy that what we're feeling on the ground has been validated," Wes
Anderson, Jindal's campaign pollster, was quoted as saying referring to
the crowds showing up to Jindal events.
But Anderson, the news
site, said that the big question is how long it will take for the
favorability ratings to begin translating into a preference for Jindal
over the other 15 Republicans vying for the Republican nomination.
With
two weeks to go until Republicans spar in Cleveland, Jindal has a lot
of catching up to do before the August 4 deadline when Fox News decides
on the final line up.
And there is always the next time with 9 official televised debates scheduled in the run up to the Nov 2016 poll.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])