With the incredible plethora of candidates in the Presidential primaries, it can be difficult to keep up with what’s happening. Here’s a quick rundown of the latest happenings in GOP land:
Chris Christie, once considered to be one of the nation’s most popular governors and a front runner for the GOP nomination until his fall from grace after the Bridgegate scandal, was having a pretty decent week, the Daily Beast reports. His poll numbers were just starting to go up in New Hampshire after a strong last debate performance, and an emotional video about drug addiction he released through the Huffington Post had just gone viral.
Then, last night, Fox Business dropped the bomb and announced Christie has been cut from appearing in the primetime debate next week because of low poll numbers. He was about half a percent below the required 2.5 percent required.
He will now take the stage at 7 p.m. Nov. 10th, alongside other once-top tier candidates Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal. Though it is possible for candidates who start out in the undercard debate to graduate to primetime (a la Carly Fiorina), no candidate who has been demoted has ever gone on to win the GOP nomination.
Meanwhile, Ohio governor, GOP candidate and increasingly notorious sexist John Kasich struck again at a town hall debate in Iowa with a bizarre response to a question from a woman in the audience about government corruption and lobbyists.
“Have you ever been on a diet?” Kasich said to her. “Many times,” she responded. He then said: “Well, you’re the perfect example.”
“Have you ever been on a diet?” Because, obviously, the only way a woman could understand the complexities of government issues is to use a metaphor for one of the many ways in she is reduced to her appearance.
This isn’t the first time Kasich has disrespected a woman during an appearance. Last month, while Kasich was speaking at the University of Richmond, 18-year-old student Kayla Solsbak raised her hand to ask a question. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any Taylor Swift concert tickets,” he said to her. Solsbak was not amused, and wrote this awesome op-ed for her school paper, the Collegian, in response.
In response to a request for comment from Mic about the incident in Iowa, Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols gave this statement:
“America’s $18 trillion national debt is a serious issue that threatens our nation’s future prosperity, and for the young people who read Mic, their share of that debt is $57,000 per person. The governor frequently poses that question to audiences — not to individuals as was inaccurately suggested — to bring home the need for us to stand up and call on the federal government to rein-in its spending. Unless we do that now the opportunities for younger Americans will be negatively impacted. That’s not the future he wants for his own teenagers or for any of America’s young people.”
He totally evaded the issue at hand, which is usually a telltale sign that he has no good explanation at all for such ridiculous behavior.