For the candidates participating in the 5 p.m. debate, tonight is just another campaign appearance, just with a larger audience. The campaign managers for several of the second-tier candidates contend that at this point, after dozens of campaign events, candidate forums, live interviews and speeches, if candidates aren’t prepared by now, they’re never going to be ready.

“For the past two and a half years, on a weekly basis, the governor has been sitting down with leading experts on whole host of issues,” said Jeff Miller, Rick Perry’s campaign manager. “Going back to that first meeting at the Hoover Institution with George Schultz, the meetings and briefings over these past two and a half years have prepared him for debates, interviews, the whole bit.”

Sarah Isgur Flores, Carly Fiorina’s deputy campaign manager, says her boss is “relaxed and focused — which means playing solitaire on her iPhone 6 plus when she has free time.”

“Bobby is well read, knows what he believes and why he believes it on issues across the spectrum, so there won’t be any need for last minute cramming,” said Timmy Teepell, Bobby Jindal’s campaign manager. Jindal arrived in Cleveland Wednesday night, plans on a good workout Thursday morning, and later today he’ll be doing a walk-through with the debate officials.

Miller suggests there may be some advantages to the earlier debate.

“Everyone on that stage is real, legitimate, serious,” Miller said. “If [Perry] was on the far left or far right of that [9 p.m.] stage, he might not get much time.”

While that may be putting the best spin on a candidate not appearing in the top ten in the national polls, the 5 p.m. debate may well be a better actual discussion of the big issues in front of the Republican Party today. No one in the bottom seven has much incentive to go after each other; it’s hard to imagine much advantage to, say, ripping into Jim Gilmore or George Pataki.