2.  People love the underdog. There is something profoundly unjust about political and media elites deciding who is a top candidate and who isn’t—based solely on name recognition in very early public opinion polls. Many Americans are likely to sympathize with a scrappy fighter who makes that case and stands up against the rich, privileged and entitled. After all, that’s how we became a nation in the first place. 

3.  Cabinet posts await.  Even if this debate doesn’t catapult the candidates into the big boys’ round, an impressive performance could be the first audition for GOP running mate. That is unless Oprah agrees to take a pay cut and become Donald Trump’s vice president. But even in that unlikely event, there are multitudes of Cabinet posts that a new GOP president will need to fill.  

4. No Trump.  In the other debate, it’s going to be hard competing for media attention—much less debate time—from the new Republican front-runner. Since two of the contenders most critical of Trump —namely Graham and Perry­—won’t be on stage with him, both will have the chance to put themselves forward, rather than exchange cannon fire with Trump, a veritable M-1 Abrams tank of catchphrases and insults. They should be grateful for that—even the two of them together were hopelessly outgunned.