Even as voters go to the polls in New Hampshire, CBS News has announced its criteria for inclusion in its South Carolina Republican debate Feb. 13, a full week before the South Carolina primary. Included are the top three finishers in the Iowa caucuses (Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio), the top five finishers in the New Hampshire primary and the top five finishers in an average of national and South Carolina polls recognized by CBS starting Jan. 15.
If the New Hampshire vote resembles current polls, that means John Kasich and Jeb Bush will also qualify. Current national and South Carolina polls show Ben Carson also qualifying.
Out would be not only Carly Fiorina but also Chris Christie, unless he runs considerably ahead of his New Hampshire poll numbers, which have him at 5.8 percent, behind Jeb Bush at 11.5 percent. That seems unlikely; we’ll know tonight. He may have inflicted serious damage on Marco Rubio in last Saturday’s New Hampshire debate, but he doesn’t seem to have helped himself. It’s a classic case of Candidate A attacking Candidate B, hurting not only B but also A and helping Candidates C, D and E.
So unless there’s a big surprise tonight, we won’t see another Christie-Rubio confrontation in the next debate.
