Bobby Jindal misses cut for first prime-time presidential debate

WASHINGTON: Indian-American presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal could not make it to the first televised Republican presidential debate featuring top 10 party candidates.

Louisiana Governor Jindal ranked 13th in the standings for the first GOP debate as calculated by Fox News, the sponsor of the event, based on an average of five recent polls.

Only 10 Republican candidates with the highest national poll numbers have been invited for the August 6 debate, Fox News announced yesterday.

Jindal, 44, instead has been relegated to the second-tier debate along with six other candidates, who could not make it to the top 10 list of the crowded 17 GOP aspirants.

Both the debates are being hosted by the Fox News at Cleveland in Ohio.

The 10 participants in the August 6 GOP presidential prime time debate would be Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and John Kasich, Fox News said.

Invited to appear at a separate forum earlier on August 6 are Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore and George Pataki.

The GOP candidates are currently being led by business tycoon Donald Trump and followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Jindal's campaign, however, brushed off the concerns about not making it to the prime time debate.

"This first votes will be cast in Iowa at the beginning of February. This nomination will be earned, not bought," said Shannon Dirmann, spokeswoman for the Jindal campaign.

Meanwhile, a super political action committee supporting Jindal has announced that it would run advertisement on the Fox News in the key battleground State of Iowa during the time of the main GOP debate.

Recent polls have suggested that Jindal is ranked fourth in Iowa and has been attracting quite a sizable crowd in this State.

"The debate in Cleveland is all about a celebrity, but one candidate is moving up where it counts, in Iowa: Bobby Jindal," the narrator says in the ad.

The ad cuts to Jindal saying, "If you elect somebody to DC that wants to be popular with the mainstream media, we are done as a country."

Jindal, who has campaigned heavily in Iowa, plans to return there the day after the debates.

Jindal yesterday appeared on the front page of Boston Herald for saying Sanctuary City mayors should be criminally liable if an illegal immigrant commits a crime in their city.