Outsider candidates laud their rise in popularity

Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson all lauded the rise of outsider candidates in the GOP presidential field as the three continue to rocket up the polls. 

{mosads}Trump and Carson have emerged as the far-and-away top tier in the field, while Fiorina rode her rising star into the top-tier debate after missing out during last month’s Fox News main-stage debate.

“I’ll tell you why people are supporting outsiders — you know what happens when someone has been in a system their whole life?” she said Wednesday night at CNN’s GOP main debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. “They don’t know how broken the system is.”

“A fish swims in water, it doesn’t know it’s water. It’s not that politicians are bad people, they’ve been in that system forever,” the former Hewlett-Packard CEO continued.

Carson slammed politicians as acting in a way that “politically expedient,” contrasting it with his own motivation.

“That is not the reason that I have gotten into this thing. I am extraordinarily concerned about the direction of this country,” the former neurosurgeon said. “I don’t want to get into describing who is a politician and who is not a politician, but I think the people have already made that decision for themselves and will continue to do so.”

Trump noted that while he’s only been a politician for about three months. “I’m obviously very good, as I’m No. 1 by a lot in every poll.”

The real estate magnate been at the top of the polls since just a few weeks after he announced his bid, but of late, Carson has barnstormed his way to the No. 2 slot. Carson has placed second in six consecutive major national polls, according to aggregation by RealClearPolitics.

And Fiorina has seen her numbers rise since last month’s Fox News debate, where she shined in the undercard matchup that included candidates outside of the top ten in polling. After heaping criticism that CNN’s reliance on older polling from before that debate could keep Fiorina out of Wednesday’s top-tier event, CNN amended the rules to effectively add her to the stage.

http://digital-stage.thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/252459-cnn-changes-debate-criteria