CNBC has released the final lineup for next week’s GOP debate in Boulder, Colorado—and there are absolutely no surprises to be had.
The main stage will look very familiar: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Rand Paul.
The top tier is missing Scott Walker, who appeared in last month’s CNN debate but has since withdrawn from the race. Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, George Pataki, and Lindsey Graham will hold down their usual places in the pre-primetime debate. Jim Gilmore did not qualify for either debate.
CNBC’s John Harwood has the details:
Larry Kudlow went into detail today on how he thinks it will be important for each candidate (especially John Kasich, who you don’t hear about very much and who Kudlow thinks “needs a good debate”) to message on economic growth:
According to The Hill, CNBC used “an average of qualifying polls from the major broadcast networks and Bloomberg from Sept. 17 through Oct. 21” to decide who would make the main stage, who would participate in the early debate, and who would be livetweeting from home.
Rand Paul and Chris Christie should be worried, at least by CNBC’s standards; they both came dangerously close to the 2.5% polling line of demarcation separating the lower tier candidates from the main stage.
As far as expectations are concerned, I have to agree with Kudlow—I’m ready for real policy messaging. We got closer to it in the last debate, but at this point, the candidates—especially those taking up space on the main stage—have no excuse to substitute snark for substance.
That’s not to say I don’t expect a show. We’ll be covering the whole thing live, so be sure to tune in here next Wednesday!
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