And I hope he is not, but if it happen, all is not lost. His presence would increase viewership. and he could ignore the neocon chorus around him, speaking in a controversial and newsworthy way directly to GOP primary voters (and donors).

In the undercard, moderators are almost irrelevant, and each candidate gets 1/4th of the time in good-size pieces. It is, in fact, a far better stage than the main one.

Note: Rand says he wants Trump-like media attention. That means, in part, having most of the MSM hate you.