--- title: Republican Debate: The Sad Sideshow of the Undercard description: "Why is your message not working?" canonical: https://time.com/4199195/republican-debate-undercard-iowa/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-29T01:23:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:29.589Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Sad Sideshow of the Republican Undercard og:description: "Why is your message not working?" og:url: https://time.com/4199195/republican-debate-undercard-iowa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9345bb06b4feea36/69887b338e06011a39464598/republican-debate-undercard.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore pose for photographers prior to the Fox News - Google GOP Debate January 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Sad Sideshow of the Republican Undercard twitter:description: "Why is your message not working?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9345bb06b4feea36/69887b338e06011a39464598/republican-debate-undercard.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Sad Sideshow of the Republican Undercard > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Watch 7 Controversial Presidential Campaign Ads [Watch (HLS stream): Watch 7 Controversial Presidential Campaign Ads](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mzDbSMCA.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2016-01-07_  by [Alex Altman / Des Moines](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman / Des Moines Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Jan 29, 2016 1:23 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore pose for photographers prior to the Fox News - Google GOP Debate January 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore pose for photographers prior to the Fox News - Google GOP Debate January 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Alex Altman / Des Moines](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman / Des Moines Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Jan 29, 2016 1:23 AM UTC Presidential campaigns are where egos go to die. You spend months as a traveling salesman, your mind is the product, and in the end the voters almost always buy something else. But rarely is the brutality of the process clearer than it was Thursday evening in Des Moines. Four days before voting begins here, the past two Iowa caucus champions were relegated, once again, to an “undercard” debate where the main line of inquiry was what went so wrong. The first question for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 contest here with the most votes in Iowa caucus history? “Why is your message not working?” A similar smackdown awaited former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who rode a classic Iowa retail campaign to an upset win four years ago. His first question from the Fox News moderators was “Is Monday night your last stand?”— a milder euphemism for “When are you going to go away?” How did the reigning caucus champs wind up at a pre-dinner debate that even the moderators seemed annoyed to be at, on a JV team next to Jim Gilmore? (The first question for Gilmore, who hasn’t held a single Iowa event: “Why should _anyone_ caucus for you on Monday night?”) It’s not because Huckabee and Santorum didn’t work it. They are one-two in total events in the state. Santorum is practically a one-man tourism industry, racking up some 90 nights in Iowa since winning the 2012 caucus. Both candidates dusted off the tested playbooks that once lifted them to glory, crisscrossing each of the state’s 99 counties, hoping that hand-to-hand retail spadework would pay off again with Iowa’s social conservatives. It has not worked. Huckabee sits in eighth place in the Hawkeye State, with 2% in the [RealClearPolitics polling average](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ia/iowa%5Frepublican%5Fpresidential%5Fcaucus-3194.html). At less than 1%, Santorum sits dead last. “I got zero,” Santorum spluttered of a recent poll. “Why? Because the NBC/Wall Street _Journal_ poll never includes my name.” Media stratification may have played a role. But the bigger problem was an age-old political saga: they got ditched for newer models. In 2016, businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are winning the voters who once caucused for Huckabee and Santorum. [Trump’s mystifying success with Christian conservatives](http://Trump's mystifying success with Christian conservatives) doesn’t seem nearly as galling to the two as does the rise of Cruz. Santorum’s first campaign ad [attacked Cruz](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/04/santorum-campaigns-1st-ad-attacks-cruz.html) for not being a true social conservative. A pro-Huckabee super PAC pumped more than $1 million into an ad campaign that assails Cruz as a two-faced phony who doesn’t tithe. Huckabee even worked two Cruz digs into [a light-hearted video parodying an Adele song](http://time.com/4195668/mike-huckabee-ted-cruz-adele/). If the debate was their valedictory, it wasn’t a particularly memorable one. The candidates ignored questions, blew through time clocks and turned up the volume in hopes of finally being heard. Both seemed to know the dream was dead. “I just want to thank the people of Iowa,” Santorum said in his closing statement. “It has been an incredible ride.” (Huckabee, for his part, decided to quote Adele.) When it was over, the two former winners were heading across town to drop in on the pre-caucus counter-programming scheduled by Trump. It wasn’t the final chapter either candidate was hoping for. But sharing a marquee with the Donald offered a consolation prize of sorts: not just the brief taste of frontrunner status, but also the chance to play spoiler against Cruz. If they weren’t going to be relevant, at least they might have revenge. ## Transcript It's not surprising when presidential campaigns and their supporters go negative. This another example of the lack of seriousness. One republican doesn't get it, Rand Paul. But controversial ads can backfire too. Here's a look at seven from past elections. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Lyndon Johnson's 1964 daisy ad set the gold standard for attacks by By suggesting his opponent, Barry Goldwater, would start a nuclear war. [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] Richard Nixon's 1968 convention ad was much tamer. But viewers complained when it ran during a comedy show. [ SOUND ] Many democrats cried foul over this 1988 ad for George H. W. Bush for playing into racial fears. One William Horton who murdered a boy in a robbery stabbing him 19 times. Despite a life sentence Horton received 10 weekend passes from prison, Horton fled kidnapped a young couple stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend. George W. Bush's 2004 ad drew complaints from relatives of September 11th victims for using images- Some challenges we've seen before, and some Images from the attack. If you have any question about what John Kerry's made of, just spend three minutes with the men who served with him. Many veterans called this 2004 ad from an outside group distasteful. John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam. He is lying about his record. Is he ready to lead? John McCain's 2008 ad compared Barack Obama to celebrities like Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears. He's the biggest celebrity in the world. Obama, Obama. When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plan I lost my healthcare, a short time after that my wife became ill. [ UNKNOWN ] criticized an outside group's 2012 ad For appearing to blame Mitt Romney, for a woman's death from cancer. And I took her up to the Jackson County Hospital and admitted for pneumonia and that's when they found the cancer, and by then, it was stage 4. Negative ads don't always work, but when they do, they make history. 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