As important as the repeal of DADT and passage of the 9/11 healthcare bill are, these are still second tier issues that will directly impact only a relatively small number of Americans.
"Something like wildlife trafficking is just not a first tier issue, it's not an issue we're going to build bilateral [relations with]," Moss said.
But that would have presumed that Schieffer differed from Candy Crowley, the previous moderator, who revealed, after the fact, that she saw global warming as a second-tier issue germane only to "all you climate change people".
For the most part, though, the accumulating crisis of climate change has been treated as a third-tier issue.
And although climate change is unlikely to be a top-tier issue in most 2016 election campaigns, some analysts believe it is a second- or third-tier issue that could move crucial votes in a tight contest.
The hearing gave Cruz a chance to flesh out his views on a topic that his Republican rivals have generally ignored, and is generally considered a second- or third-tier issue for voters.
We can no longer look at climate change as a second-tier issue, relegated to something confined to the environmental community.
According to research cited in the report, while health care is a second-tier issue behind the economy and the national debt, 41percentt of the young people surveyed thought the overall impact of the Affordable Care Act would be positive, and young people preferred how Democrats handled health care by a 63-37 margin.
And yet climate policy appears to be on track to remain a second- or third-tier issue for another election cycle.
"These are front-burner, first-tier issues," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.
Because he is close to both Obamas, he will ensure that education doesn't fall, as it usually does, into the ranks of the second-tier issues.
