Evidently CNN believes once a diner is seated at the kid’s table, the diner is seated at the kid’s table. Carly Fiorina was one of the candidates whose polling numbers didn’t cross the threshold for being allowed to participate in the main Republican debate — better known as "The Donald Trump vs. Megyn Kelly Show" — held earlier this month.
So she and a half dozen other candidates were grudgingly allowed to participate in the non-primetime debate hosted by Krusty the Clown, while the popular kids where questioned by the Fox News “A" team.
This early debate was termed the “kid’s table” or “happy hour” as one of the unhappy participants dubbed it.
Fiorina wasn’t daunted by her second-class seating and she proceeded to make lemonade out of lemons. Her performance in the much-less-watched event was so strong she immediately began to climb in the polls.
In just a few short weeks Fiorina has gone from a rating well under the margin of error to a solid 5 percent in both the CNN and Fox News polls. Yet in a development that’s too painful to be called ironic, the only woman in the Republican field may be kept out of the second debate.
Instead of using the polls taken since the first debate, which gauges the most current public opinion influenced by her performance, CNN is including polls taken before the first event. Since Fiorina was almost unknown then, including those numbers in the average brings her poll standing back to the kid’s table level.
Katie Hughes, communications director for Carly for America, thinks it makes more sense to use the polls from the first primary states, taken after the first debate. As she told The Hill, “Nobody is running nationally.
"Placing so much importance on national polling — especially this early in the process — starts to take away the vital role that the voters of these early states play."
Besides being unfair, CNN’s survey criteria is illogical. When CNN uses ratings to sell time to advertisers it uses the most up-to-date rating survey for a program, not a rating taken when the viewing audience was unaware the program existed and consequently the rating was very low.
If that philosophy is good enough for a dud show like “Crossfire,” it’s certainly good enough for an excellent candidate like Carly Fiorina.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.