To find out how much people know about the GOP presidential candidates in the lead up to Thursday’s debates, I headed to Lafayette Park in front of the White House to talk to passersby. Not everyone I spoke with knew that there were two debates. But some were quite knowledgeable — even aware that former New York Gov. George Pataki would be on the stage.
When asked how many debates Fox is holding Thursday, Clara Rios of Texas, said “Like eight?” Her friend Doug Collier tried to save her, declaring, “There’s one debate right?” Wrong.
Of all the people I talked to, only Timothy Morton of D.C. correctly identified the number of debates, two. “One’s for the second tier and one’s for the main hitters.” He couldn’t name which candidates were in the prime time debate, however.
Most of the people I interviewed — even those unfamiliar with the debate events — could name the top two candidates, business mogul Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Some even went on to name less familiar candidates. Paul Kittredge of Maryland named mostly lesser known candidates such as former Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Pataki. Morton named RealClearPolitics’ lowest polling candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. But no one could identify Jim Gilmore, even though he was governor of the state bordering the district (though that was a decade and a half ago).
But Tom Walker of Australia confused Ron Paul for his son, Rand, who will participate in the main event at 9 p.m. But Walker was the only person I spoke to who identified Bush, not Trump, as a debate participant first.
Rena, of the District, who did not disclose her last name, perhaps wisely, named Hillary Clinton as a participant in debates. She will soon discover her mistake, since she said she plans to tune in tonight.
Emily Leayman is an intern at the Washington Examiner
