The Ever Filling and Never Empty Clown Car

Two more candidates have thrown their hats into the GOP clown car-Rick Santorum and George Pataki. I have to say that at this point...who isn't running for president on the GOP ticket in 2016? Clearly, several of the candidates (declared or about to declare) have no hope of winning and are hoping to increase their brand in the cottage industry of conservative punditdom.

Of course, the problem still exists regarding the debates. You can't have 15-20 candidates on stage vying for talking time, can you? It appears that the RNC and the networks have come up with a solution.

Fox has come up with a fair and balanced formula for picking the 10. Five national polls will be averaged, and the top 10 finishers will be allowed to debate. Fox News Executive Vice President Michael Clemente told POLITICO’s Dylan Byers: “If there is an apparent tie for 10th place, we will examine the more granular data to determine who is ahead. If it’s an absolute tie, we will add a podium.”

Ooo...sounds all official and stuff....granular data...whatever. And hilarious that they are relying on those "unreliable" polls I hear so much about...:)

Consider this scenario for a moment. The poll averages come out and coming in at #11 is Carly Fiorina. Who gets to be the lucky one to tell the only woman in the race that she's out? And how will that look to the general voting public?

Maybe CNN has a better idea.

The CNN folks, on the other hand, have gotten crafty and decided to have two groupings of debates, one for the “smart” candidates and one for the “slow” candidates. That’s my interpretation anyway. The official CNN criteria are just this side of gibberish. 

“The first 10 candidates — ranked from highest to lowest in polling order from an average of all qualifying polls released between July 16 and September 10 who satisfy the criteria requirements … will be invited to participate in ‘Segment B’ of the September 16, 2015 Republican Presidential Primary Debate,” says the network. “Candidates who satisfy the criteria and achieve an average of at least 1 percent in three national polls, but are not ranked in the top 10 of polling order will be invited to participate in ‘Segment A’ of the September 16, 2015 Republican Presidential Primary Debate.” 

Wait...what? There's an A Team and a B Team now? Wow...that's going to be fun:)

And remember all that hoo hah about getting conservative moderators only? So as not to reveal too much the sheer insanity that is the GOP today?

Oops.