Fox News has announced their debate line-up. Using their selected “polling” data, they have ranked the candidates and announced the “Top Ten” (Tier One) who will have a prime-time debate 9pm to 11pm on Thursday August 6th. A second tier (bottom ranked 7) who will have a 5pm to 7pm with a smaller debate presence.
FOX RANKING: Yellow = top tier, Blue = bottom tier.
According to the ranking methodology Mike Huckabee ranks considerably higher than all 13 polls we have outlined/tracked so far.
In addition Bush comes in second, despite numerous recent polls showing Bush actually ranked 3rd. Ohio’s John Kasich makes the cut beating out Perry or Fiorina by the same poll data Fox is using.
However, the obvious point is that the Fox methodology keeps the Tom Donohue CoC/GOPe plan solidly in place as it keeps the needed “non Jeb” vote constituency highly visible. The goal is to split the larger electoral states by using home-grown candidates.
Ohio (Kasich), Texas (Cruz/Perry), and Florida (Rubio), are the strategic large electoral state candidates who the CoC is counting on to fracture conservatives and allow Jeb to win with a 10 to 15% block of primary support. The candidates within these states will be retained within the primary at all costs.
Jim Gilmore in Virginia is playing a similar role (purchased insurance policy) inside his home state, as is Lindsey Graham in South Carolina (a strategic 3rd primary state), and Pataki for New York.
Again, the BIG RISK to derail the Donohue plan is specifically and exclusively Donald Trump who continues to enlarge his broad base of support and is shown to be polling even higher than Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio inside Florida, and more importantly inside Miami-Dade.
Florida is a winner-take-all 100 electoral vote state, and is the absolute necessity if the CoC is to pull off their Jeb Bush plan as outlined and exhaustively strategized. Hence, not only is Trump a risk overall, but his current polling success in Florida is Defcon 5 for Tom Donohue, Wall Street, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the professional political class within the GOP.
Toward that end Rupert Murdoch (Mr. Wall Street/Media Conglomerate), having tried and failed to dispatch Trump with large personal strikes against him, is now working an alternate approach.
