Undercard

Long-shot candidates gasp for air in GOP debate

The four low-polling contenders struggle to be heard or land blows on the undercard stage.

By Shane Goldmacher

Four Republican presidential candidates polling at one percent or less gasped for airtime and traction in a 2016 campaign that threatens to leave them behind, turning their fire on President Obama, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, and the larger Washington machine.

It’s not clear what, exactly, it would have taken in the undercard debate to vault a candidate into the national conversation, but it didn’t happen on Wednesday night.

“Let me get a word in edgewise,” George Pataki shouted at one point throwing his arms out in exasperation.

Pataki, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, and Bobby Jindal rarely engaged with one another and instead tried to get in their talking points. At one point, Santorum managed to launch into an Obamacare attack as he answered a question on beer mergers. Jindal repeatedly spoke about how he would “shrink the government.”

But collectively, they spent most of their time going after Democrats.

“Barack Obama is an incompetent commander in chief,” Graham said. Pataki accused Obama of being the first president to “hold our military hostage.” And Jindal said of the Democrats, “They want to take away our gun rights. They want to take away our religious liberty.”

Graham, the witty South Carolina senator, landed the night’s most memorable lines, blasting the top two Democrats in the polls, Clinton and Bernie Sanders, in a single swipe.

“The No. 1 candidate says she was flat broke even though she spent eight years in the White House," he said. “The No. 2 guy went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon and I don't think he ever came back.”

Graham tried again and again to turn to one of his strengths, foreign affairs, holding out an open hand and clenched fist at one point. If he were president, Graham said, “The party is over for the dictators. Make me commander in chief and this crap stops.”

But Graham also spent several of his precious minutes defending his positions on issues about which he is out of touch with rank-and-file Republicans — on immigration and climate change.

Pataki sided with Graham on climate change, and urged government action to help, including research-and-development credits. “Too often, we question science that everyone accepts,” Pataki said of the Republican Party.

There were more interrogators than candidates at the undercard debate, with CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood serving as moderators, while Jim Cramer, Sharon Epperson and Rick Santelli also questioned the candidates.

Santelli’s fiery intensity as he pressed the candidates stood out in an otherwise flat debate. As he spoke, Twitter lit up with jokes about whether Santelli was, in fact, running.

It wasn’t until the closing minutes that any of the candidates even mentioned any of the top ten Republicans in the field, and even then only in jest. Asked what apps they have on their phones, Graham quipped, “The only reason I have an iPhone is I gave my phone number to Donald Trump.” (Trump gave out Graham’s cell phone earlier this summer after the senator took a swipe at Trump's campaign.)

The debate ended much as it began, with familiar attacks on Democrats.

“We cannot allow Hillary Clinton to take us down this path towards socialism,” Jindal said. “Further down this path.”