non-college-educated base, far more voters without a college degree than any other candidates. joining me now is a politics reporter at the daily beast and tim carney from the washington examiner. tim, let s start with winning over non-college-educated voters. can ted cruz do it? i think cruz can do it just as well as trump and he s the guy to pick up those voters if they do start peeling off of trump. a large part of that is he rails against the washington elite, the washington establishment, which the republican party has long served mostly the business lobby, and cruz has been part of the movement to try to pull the republicans away from that, try to speak to working class worries. immigration is a major one. cruz is a very natural guy to take some of those voters away from trump. what about marco rubio? he s done better among college-educated white voters.
here at cnn and before we talked tuesday in the debate you were listening to my conversation with ying ma there deputy communications director of dr. carson s campaign. thoughts? the party has an obligation to remain neutral, right? they can t show any favoritism among any of these candidates. but they d be derelict in their duty if they didn t game out hey what happens if no one reaches the requisite number of votes? rubio and bush supporters according to a washington post were at that dinner. true, they were. but i believe i have to take the rnc at face value, that they re constantly having these types of meetings and these type of confabs. i don t see any reason to believe that this was an agenda item. it seems as if the conversation wondered in to the foreseeable future. clearly what she s that campaign is worried about, though, washington elite. if others had a seat at the table and this was planned they too should have a seat at the table. there s no doubt about tha
trump and back not so much into the establishment camp but i think some of these guys can establish themselves as outsiders, not beholden to the washington elite. but, david and beth, i want to ask you both about do or die time. david, you go first. who s got to make a splash tonight? do or die time. with rick perry having gotten out. i think a lot of these guys can dribble along for a long time as long as they keep getting invited to the debates and are getting 5% in a crowded field. it is not quite do or die time for jeb bush because he ll stay in the race forever. but at the same time he has to start showing his supporters with be that is his investors, the people who hpaid for his campaign, that he can make a splash. scott walker probably the guy who has the most on line given his precipitous fall in iowa has to start reversing that, otherwise he ll be out whether he is in the race or not. beth, who do you think? i think rand paul and chris christie are teetering on the pre
that guy on the other side says, i m against it. it s produced or really dysfunctional government and frankly people are sick of it. on the right and left, you see bernie sanders. drawing big crowds. you see these nontraditional candidates who i ain t part of this washington elite, i ain t part of the political establishment who are really getting some appeal. the fact that trump and ben carson are so different in demeanor but this moment have appeal within the republican voting class tells you something about the attitude of voters right now. do not underestimate the quiet guy on stage on wednesday, that being ben carson. let s talk about texas, home turf. rick perry one of the most outspoken against donald trump. he s now bowed out of the race
had for somebody who hadn t run for office before. ben carson retired neurosurgeon. he s outside of that washington casting himself outside the washington elite, and so far it s paying off for him in double digits in this poll. on the meet the press, talking about the cut for the debate. they talked about how they re going to be seated on the stage. here s that. candidates have been told they will likely be lined up on stage according to their polling averages. that means we d see donald trump right in the center. surrounded by scott walker and jeb bush to his left and right. then you d have rand paul ben carson marco rubio, mike huckabee and ted cruz. then, of course, who s in spots nine and ten or stage right and stage left? of the three candidates vying for the final two spots, the averages right now have kasich and christie on the wings making it onstage. rick perry as of this morning would not, because as you know this is not the spinal tap