Posted on 10/04/2015 3:37:36 PM PDT by conservativejoy
CNBC has released its criteria for the next GOP debate, and effectively it means there will be ten candidates in the real debate, and three in the minor leagues division:
Donald Trump would be at the center, flanked by Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. If polling averages remain constant, the rest of the 8 p.m. stage would feature Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. John Kasich, Gov. Chris Christie, former Gov. Mike Huckabee and Paul.
Any candidate who has reached 1 percent in at least one of the polls recognized by CNBC is invited to participate in a 6 p.m. EDT undercard debate. According to current polls, that stage would feature Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Gov. George Pataki and former Sen. Rick Santorum. Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Gov. Jim Gilmore would need to notch at least 1 percent in any upcoming polls recognized by CNBC over the next three weeks in order to make the stage.
This is insane. The less important debate will have only three candidates, with each getting a good amount of time to explain their positions, and the important debate will have ten. Now, this is tentative; if Rand Paul, Huckabee, and Christie don't maintain a 3% polling average, they may be dropped.
Yes, they should be dropped. This is no longer so "early" in the campaign; there are only four months left until Iowa starts voting. The top six candidates--Trump, Carson, Carly, Rubio, Jeb, and Cruz should have one debate, and the rest, roughly seven other candidates, should be in the lesser debates.
If they are unhappy being in the lesser debate, they should either work hard to improve their poll standings, as Carly did, or put pressure on the network to add an 11th candidate to a ten person debate because the 11th candidate is a woman, as Carly also did. Perhaps this second strategy would not work so well for Pataki or Jindal, but it might work for Lindsey Graham!
I understand that the debate organizers don't want to leave viable candidates out of the major debate. But we are learning very little by having the debates sliced into ten pieces. Last time Ted Cruz and Scott Walker got penalized by it, and look at what happened poor, poor Scott Walker. That's why I say, no more than the top six for the major debate.
Communists have ran the media for more than 4 decades...
Heck, send them all to Survivor for 39 days to see wh is left standing for the final 3.. Would be more effective than the Commumedia...
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