Here's a 2012 Republican debate. Now double it.
After the nonstop debatorama that was the 2012 Republican presidential primary, the party vowed to cut down on the number of debates in 2016. It's done that, going from 23 debates to 12. But what about the clown car that is the Republican field? How do you even get as many as 17 candidates on a stage, let alone give them time to say anything about their candidacy or positions? But
how can Republicans decide who to exclude, especially when you're talking about people who will not be shy about trumpeting—and fundraising off of—their grievances? The Republican Party has to find a measure that allows in the people they want to allow in and keeps out the people they don't want on their stage, but without looking like it's rigged.
In that pursuit, Republicans face a number of potential problems. There's the appearance-of-diversity problem:
[Ben] Carson, according to a number of party insiders, is all-but-guaranteed a spot given his relatively strong polling in the GOP field. The bigger issue is former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina—the only woman seeking the Republican nomination and also one of the party’s most ferocious Clinton critics—who barely registers in polling. Both announced their presidential candidacies on Monday.
Fiorina is polling below two percent, so it would be hard to justify having her in while excluding others, but not letting one woman into your giant club is not the greatest look for 2016.
Then there's the blowhard problem:
There’s also the matter of Donald Trump. The reality television star has formed a presidential exploratory committee but has yet to officially declare himself a candidate for the White House. Should he do so, many Republican insiders say it would be hard for the party to exclude him—voters find him entertaining and he has a large megaphone with which he could embarrass the GOP. “This sounds crazy, but it’s safer to just include him,” said one 2016 presidential aide.
Hahahahahahaha. I'm sorry, I've got nothing but laughter on this one. Especially the part where they're worried about Trump embarrassing them if he's not allowed into the debate more than they're worried about him embarrassing them by what he says from the debate stage. Although I guess the variously absurd and offensive things Trump would say in a debate aren't necessarily so different from the absurd and offensive things Ben Carson or Ted Cruz would say. It's just the reality television flair he'd say them with.