The fourth Republican presidential primary debate is in the books. Let’s take a look at who got the most speaking time:
For the first time this debate cycle, Ted Cruz got the most speaking time in the debate, with almost 13 minutes. In the first three debates, Donald Trump had the most speaking time twice, while Carly Fiorina got the most speaking time once.
Cruz got 15 percent of the total speaking time. Despite complaining early and often about not getting enough speaking time, John Kasich ended up with the second-most airtime. Kasich spoke for 12 minutes, with almost 14 percent of the total speaking time. Despite being second in the polls, Ben Carson got only 10.5 percent of the speaking time. He spoke for only nine minutes, even less than all the candidates in the undercard debate.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2575923
The average speaking time among the candidates was 10.9 minutes. Cruz, Kasich, Trump and Fiorina all spoke for more than their fair share of time, if you believe each candidate should have had equal time.
On the other hand, if you think higher-polling candidates should have gotten more speaking time, Trump and Carson did not speak enough. For example, Trump averages 25 percent in the polls used for the debate, but he got only 13.3 percent of the speaking time.
Besides Trump and Carson, every other candidate’s portion of speaking time was larger than his or her share of support. Cruz had 15 percent of the speaking time, but he receives only 10 percent support in the polls. For the second debate in a row, John Kasich had the largest gap between his poll numbers and how much speaking time he got.
The Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, was a hot topic at the GOP debate. She was referenced 30 times, up from 23 references in the Sept. 16 debate. Clinton was mentioned by each candidate at least once, seven each by Jeb Bush and Fiorina.
Even on the eve of Veterans Day, veterans were mentioned only five times. Three references came from Bush.
Despite leading the poll average for months, Donald Trump was mentioned on only one occasion, by Rand Paul.
The undercard debate was interesting for the shakeup in its participants. Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee were demoted from the primetime debate. Lindsey Graham and George Pataki were demoted from the undercard debate, joining Jim Gilmore in not being able to debate at all.
Overall, speaking time at the undercard debate was close to equal. Only 1.3 minutes separated the speakers with the most and least speaking time. Contrast that with the Sept. 17 undercard debate, where Lindsey Graham spoke for almost 10 more minutes more than George Pataki.
Of the 12 candidates who participated in either debate tonight, Rick Santorum spoke for the second-longest, at 12.2 minutes.
Combined, the four candidates got over 45 minutes to speak at the debate, six more minutes than they had at the Oct. 28 undercard debate.
It was clear from beginning to end that Christie’s strategy would be to attack Hillary Clinton as much as possible. He referenced Clinton on 12 occasions, even though the moderators never mentioned her in a question. That’s more than twice as often as Bobby Jindal mentioned Clinton; the other two candidates didn’t mention her at all.
With Veterans Day on Wednesday, veterans’ issues were an expected topic. Bobby Jindal brought veterans up most often, with six mentions. Every candidate mentioned veterans at least once.
Despite currently leading most polls, Donald Trump was not mentioned at all by the candidates or the moderators in the undercard debate.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
