Posted on 05/19/2015 1:37:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Republican field of candidates fighting for the nomination for president is already large and its expected to grow. Just yesterday we heard that Lindsay Graham and Bobby Jindal are in the penultimate steps of announcing. There could be well over a dozen candidates by the time of the first scheduled televised GOP presidential debate in August.
Its a problem for the GOP. A good problem to have, certainly, but a problem nonetheless. The GOP certainly would not trade its plight for the Democrats situation two aging senator-types from the northeastern part of the country who arent bothering to disagree with each other. Still, Republicans have to figure something out since most people dont want to see 15 candidates speak for only 6 minutes each in a 1.5-hour debate.
Even 10 is way too many for fruitful debates to help voters figure out who they want as their nominee. But how do you limit the field in a fair manner? Conn Carroll has an idea:
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top seven candidates of the RCP polling avg on the stage. done. problem solved. http://t.co/nMtwxILMgB
Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) May 18, 2015
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Sure. Right now thats Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson. Who doesnt make the cut? Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal and Lindsay Graham. Id like to hear from each of those candidates. And more, frankly.
1) Who, exactly, determines viability?
Whenever a candidate throws his or her hat into the ring, political journalists quickly assert whether said candidate is viable. They give far, far more coverage to those candidates that they have deemed worthy.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
Or a bracket of pistol duels.
Next GOP candidate. Next MSM anchor.
Candidates who have declared so far ( please add if I missed anyone ):
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Ben Carson
Carly Fiorina
Mike Huckabee
Rand Paul
Candidates planning to announce:
Scott Walker
Rick Perry
Jeb Bush
Lindsay Graham
Donald Trump
John Kasich
Rick Santorum
Bobby Jindal
Chris Christie
George Pataki
No. It is fundamentally unfair and wrong to exclude any. Have more than one debate. Create a lottery to decide who is in which debate. Decide the acceptable size and divide it up into the necessary number of debates.
Polling is about name recognition at this point. Give everyone a chance to be heard.
You missed someone. Jim Gilmore, a conservative who was a Virginia governor and RNC chairman, announced, last Nov., that he’ll probably run for president.
Just make the debate more than one and hours long. The people should hear what they need to hear and if they miss something they will catch what they need to on youtube.
Exactly! The plan to pare down the field this early is just a plan to cheat by those who benefit from name recognition.
Let them debate. Don’t go through one of those stupid media brokered Q&A sessions where the moderator gets the face time and the candidates give stock answers that they have practiced.
Three unseeded prelims is the way to gothen winnow it.
Debates on TV are outdated and a waste of time. With the internet a candidate can get his message out to those who are interested. But the debates are pointless. It’s how we ended up with Rohmney and Obama
Maybe, but not everyone will watch online. We need both and they need to be fair and include everyone.
Use an NHL style playoff! We can have a central, west, east division playoff. Use a poll to rank order about 5 or 6 for each division based on their home state. Let them debate two or 3 times, go to semi finals, finals. Then let the voters decide who wins the Cup.
You and I had similar ideas. I thought they should be divided up, no more than 6 to a stage, and have similtaneous debates using the same questions. These could be aired consecutively so that everyone will be heard.
That’s a very good idea.
Thanks. I want all of the candidates to be heard.
Eliminate from consideration anyone who has already said they will not uphold the rule of law.
That leaves Cruz and Walker. Should be a good debate.
Alan Keyes decidedly won every debate he participated in but was arrested and handcuffed for trying to get into a debate after the GOPe had decided who would participate.
That was terrible, what happened to Alan Keyes. I wonder what he is doing these days. I saw him at an airport once. He’s a good man.
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