CNN offers a new national poll of the GOP field that offers more of the same – Donald Trump is at 52 percent, Ron DeSantis is at 18 percent, and everyone else in single digits.

At the back of the pack, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and radio show host Larry Elder came in at one percent, and former congressman Will Hurd and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson came in at asterisks. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is at 2 percent, and alas, South Carolina senator Tim Scott is only at 3 percent.

Any candidate who didn’t make the stage for the first debate is going to have a tough time qualifying for the second debate. The next debate will be held September 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, airing on Fox Business Channel. To qualify, candidates need to reach 3 percent support in two national polls, or 3 percent in one national poll and 3 percent in polls of two different early primary states. Candidates will also need to have 50,000 donors.

The editors of NR have already urged Asa Hutchinson to withdraw from the race.

I would ask those who are at the asterisk or one percent levels… what’s your plan? What are you going to do over the next couple weeks that will garner attention and build support, that will be different from what you’ve done for the past few months? Because what you’ve been doing is not working. Despite what you insist in interviews, the American people are not clamoring for you to run. Maybe they ought to be clamoring, and maybe it’s really unfair that the GOP electorate never gave you a hard look. But your job as a candidate is to convince people to support you in this primary, and so far, you really haven’t succeeded in doing that. Maybe your friends and family are telling you that you’re remarkably charismatic and appealing and people are just itching to vote for you in the primary. The evidence suggests that your friends and family are just being polite. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but so far, you’ve been just another face in the crowd.

I’m not saying these men have to drop out. But if they keep doing what they’re doing, they’ll keep getting what they’re getting.

It’s one thing to launch a longshot bid; it’s another thing to insist, after a couple of months, that some magic sudden surge in support is just around the corner. Everybody’s been doing this for at least two and a half months. Hutchinson announced his bid April 2; Elder announced his bid April 20; Christie announced his bid June 6; Burgum announced his bid June 7; Hurd announced his bid June 22.

Yes, it takes great confidence to run for president, maybe even defiant cockiness in the face of long odds. But at some point that becomes delusion, and the rest of us are not obligated to play along with these candidates’ fantasies that they’re going to be the next president of the United States.