The Republican presidential field is still too big, and should be whittled down in the coming weeks, pollster John Zogby tells
Newsmax TV.
"I'm suggesting that CNN invite only seven candidates to the next debate and that the GOP itself should have as a goal, four by the time it's the Iowa debate in mid-January," Zogby said Monday on "Newsmax Prime."
Typically, more candidates have dropped out of the race by this point, Zogby said, and the crowded field makes it harder for everyone — except front-runner Donald Trump — to get media attention.
Reagan biographer Craig Shirley told Newsmax that any attempts to target Trump could be seen as an establishment ploy and actually bolster his support.
Trump has no need to worry yet, Zogby said, but added that his 31 percent support isn't likely to grow.
Trump's numbers look very large, Zogby said, "but there's a visceral anger, particularly among white working class voters who are fed up, fed up with what they see as a new America, a new America that they don't like."
This "new America" is "one dominated by people of color and their concerns, one where the United States is less dominant in its role overseas, one where the culture has changed and a marriage is just assumed," Zogby said.
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Ben Carson also is stalled, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are rising.
That's important, Shirley said
"Reagan's old campaign manager John Sears once said that politics is motion," he said. "Donald Trump doesn't seem to be in motion right now."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday secured the coveted endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader, but the Granite State's largest newspaper no longer holds the sway it did when William Loeb was publisher, Shirley said.
"Nonetheless, it is nothing but good news for Christie," Shirley said. "It still is a big, vital important part of the political establishment in New Hampshire."
Zogby said that
Cruz's latest attack ad on Rubio challenging his past support of amnesty for illegal immigrants and support for Syrian refugee settlement could boost his conservative bona fides, but it could also end up hurting the party in the general election.
"Certainly not helping with Latino voters, not helping to define what the heart and soul of the party really is," he said.
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