(These caricatures of the Fox News "Chosen 10" are by DonkeyHotey.)The Republican clown car has become so crowded that it has morphed into a clown parade -- with 17 candidates vying to be chosen the favorite clown. Self-appointed clown gatekeeper Fox News, the organization holding the first debate, decided that 17 clowns was too many -- even for a show on their clownish network. So they ruled that only 10 clowns would be allowed to perform.
They said they would use the average of five of the most recent national polls to determine who would be allowed to participate. They have now announced their decision about who that 10 will be -- using the latest surveys of Bloomberg News, CBS News, Fox News, Monmouth University, and Quinnipiac University.
The clowns who will perform are Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and John Kasich.
The clowns who will not be allowed to perform are Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, Jim Gilmore, and George Pataki. It's bad enough that these seven candidates have been unable to gather even a small amount of support, but now they have been relegated to the "second tier" of candidates -- which will make it even harder to convince voters to support them. Even though the primaries (and caucuses) are still about five months away, it may well be time for these seven to consider dropping out.
Of course, I could be wrong -- but it would take a miracle to elevate the bottom seven clowns into relevance.
