If you have 20 candidates in an hour-long debate and each gets a one minute opening statement you've already used up 1/3 of the debate.
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) June 11, 2015
The Oscars are three and a half hours, but deciding on the leader of the free world needs to clock in at CSI length. https://t.co/ZuBn0maFSp
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) June 11, 2015
And there’s not a single Republican candidate that has more than a minute’s worth of ideas — even if you include the really bad ones.
But the NH GOP (state motto: Live Free or Die Trying) is unhappy that pruning the number of “serious” candidates down to a mere ten (including, possibly, Donald Trump!) will painfully limit their quadrennial grift bonanza. Warning, Politico:
A group of prominent New Hampshire Republicans has written an open letter to Fox News and the Republican National Committee, urging them to reconsider the criteria for the Republican primary debates on the network.
The letter, signed by 56 Republicans, including former governors, members of Congress, state legislators and delegates, warns that the current criteria threaten to “undermine the very nature of our process and the valuable service that states like New Hampshire provide to voters across the country.”…
“The first televised debate of the 2016 election cycle should place all candidates on even footing and allow each to make their case directly to the voters and your viewers,” the letter states. “Anything less would prematurely suppress the candidate field, and arbitrarily elevate candidates who benefit from preliminary notoriety and fundraising.”
The group suggests a new format that would include two panels that appear back-to-back, taking the top six candidates in public polls and randomly splitting them into the two panels, with the remaining candidates randomly split evenly among the other spots…
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Apart from bickering & idiocy, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The Oscar People Are Nicer to Look AtPost + Comments (143)