What should the CNBC GOP debate criteria be?

[Likely Voter]

We still don't know what the criteria will be for inclusion in the next debate (October 28 on CNBC in Colorado, focus on the economy).

The Fox August debate criteria was: Top 10 in average of last five national live phone polls debate in primetime, other candidates who are listed in polls attend early debate (originally early debate required avg of 1% in polls). The CNN September debate criteria was also a 'Top 10' but they spread the poll average over six weeks. Only later (after not enough polls came out after the Fox debate) did they add a new criteria for the top 10 of post-Fox debate polls. They also had earlier second debate that had minimum requirement of average of 1% in 3 polls over 6 weeks (only Gilmore didn't qualify).

Now there are 15 candidates left. How would you set the criteria for the next debate:

- Use national polls or state polls or both?
- Live phone only or some non-live phone pollsters? (if so, who?)
- Top 8? Top 10? Or minimum criteria (like anyone averaging 1%+ or 2%+, even if they end up with more than 10)
- Early 'kiddie table' debate or not?
- If no kiddie table, do non-qualifiers get any kind of consolation prize (promise of airtime? A forum on a dif night? )

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I'll guess that the top 8 get a 2 hour debate, while the kiddie debate is 1 hour.

[/]

There should be three debates, each with five of the fifteen candidates. In no specific order:

Serious Candidates Debate - Bush, Rubio, Kasich, Fiorina, Christie

These five candidates discuss the current issues facing our nation and how each candidate's potential administration could best help the American people.

Evangelical Favorites Summit - Huckabee, Cruz, Carson, Santorum, Jindal

These five candidates spar for the support of the Evangelical vote in a high-energy frenzy of controversial abortion remarks, anti-gay rhetoric, and subtle racial implications.

Chuckles Forum - Trump, Graham, Paul, Pataki, Gilmore

Paul and Graham fiercely debate foreign policy while Pataki and Gilmore insert irrelevant remarks regarding their "good chances" of winning the nomination and Trump serves as jester (this debate is aired on Comedy Central instead of CNBC).

[Rocky Rockefeller]

They should set a minimum polling average of 2% during the last month before the debate, with  a maximum of 10 candidates or fewer allowed to participate. There should not be a kiddie table debate.

[The Other Castro]

No Kiddie Table debate, and one main debate for the top 10 polling candidates.

[Mehmentum]

It looks like a 1% qualification would get all of the CNN top tier debaters (minus Walker, of course), and maybe Santorum. So 10 to 11 candidates.

A 2% qualifier might also have 10 candidates, depending on how Christie does following the CNN debate.

A top 8 qualification would be dangerous for Christie, Kasich, and Paul, with Paul being in the best position.

My preference is for them to just stick with the top 10.  At this point there isn't really any doubt who is relevant in the field, and its basically just the top 10.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

2% Threshold. Same standard as this point last cycle. Worked out fine then, should be fine now.

[eric82oslo]

Top 14-15 candidates and a 4 hour debate, in order to really make Trump's feet sore (and his ego burst). Easy peasy.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Top 14-15 candidates and a 4 hour debate, in order to really make Trump's feet sore (and his ego burst). Easy peasy.

No one except political junkies would watch all 4 hours.

[eric82oslo]

Top 14-15 candidates and a 4 hour debate, in order to really make Trump's feet sore (and his ego burst). Easy peasy.

No one except political junkies would watch all 4 hours.

Those close to 5 hours of CNN's debate felt more like 1.5 hours to me. Perhaps it was due to all the commercial breaks though (and the big Chilean earthquake breaking in the middle of it).

[FLgirl]

No percentages - just do Top 8. We've had a 10 person debate and an 11 person debate, and it's too many people for any worthwhile discernment of ideas.

But they'll probably do Top 10, and I hope par it down to Top 8 for November.



On the fun side, they could do the reality show thing where each of them stands on a pole and shouts their platform until there's only one left standing.

[The Mikado]

2% cutoff on RCP averages a week prior to the debate.

[SteveRogers]

I think a 2% threshold is much more sensible than arbitrarily squeezing the number of participants down to 8. But accept a slightly bigger pool of polls than the Fox/ CNN "reputable pollsters" list. No Zogbys and whatnot, but PPP should be counted. No kiddie table debate.

[Averroës Nix]

A $2 million security deposit.

[ElectionsGuy]

I think a 2% threshold is much more sensible than arbitrarily squeezing the number of participants down to 8. But accept a slightly bigger pool of polls than the Fox/ CNN "reputable pollsters" list. No Zogbys and whatnot, but PPP should be counted. No kiddie table debate.

I agree. It would be 10, with Walker now out. The other 4 (or 5, if you count Gilmore) have seen their days go by (except Jindal, who's just failing to pick up that Ted Cruz firebrand support).

[Crumpets]

Candidates must publicly declare that 1) Vaccines do not cause autism, 2) Global warming is real and man-made, and 3) Evolution is real.

Candidates who do the above can participate in the CNBC debate. Candidates who do not go to a separate debate held by either the Blaze, Breitbart, WND, or another similar group, and get asked questions by moderators Palin, Beck, and Limbaugh.

That way, we can all get the serious discussion we are looking for, as well as being entertained. Plus the Tea Party wing will view it the same way, but with the second debate as the serious one and the first debate as the entertaining one.

[Kingpoleon]

Five candidates each, three debates.

The names would be randomly drawn from a hat.

[Maxwell]

Top eight in terms of polling since the last debate.

[mencken]

Polling at or better where Rick Santorum (the most obvious example of a candidate who climbed from the cellar in polling to a credible contender for the nomination) was at this point in the cycle in the RCP Average, either nationally or in one of the early states. With rounding, Santorum had 2% nationally and 3% in Iowa on October 28, 2011.

Applying that to this cycle at this moment in time would qualify Trump, Carson, Bush, Rubio, Cruz, Fiorina, Huckabee, Paul, Kasich, and Christie on the basis of their national numbers, and Jindal based on his Iowa numbers. Kasich's New Hampshire numbers give him a bit of padding in case he slips nationally. Since this would again entail the agony of an 11-man debate stage, the candidates should draw sticks prior to the debate to determine whether they participate in the earlier 6-man debate or the later 5-man debate, with 75 minutes allocated to each event.

Santorum, Graham, Pataki, and Gilmore combined would fail to meet this criteria. However, if audiences truly miss their presence, they will be extended the opportunity to jointly participate in the early debate via sattelite. Questions will be asked of the four of them as a whole, and their collective time cannot exceed that of the serious or semi-serious candidates on stage, else "connectivity issues" will arise.

[DomSantiago]

Five candidates each, three debates.

The names would be randomly drawn from a hat.

I did this just for kicks and added things like setting, moderators, attire, etc. I also added 1 Dem candidate/possible candidate for each of the debates. Here's what I got:

DEBATE 1
Contestants: Graham, Rubio, Kasich, Santorum, Trump, Biden
Contestant Attire: Nude
Moderators: Cenk Uygur, Chris Matthews, Rush Limbaugh
Moderator attire theme: Rocky Horror Picture Show
Setting: Burning Man
Extra Debate Rules: 1 shot of alcohol by each of the candidates every 5 minutes
Sponsor: National Rifle Association
Channel: Animal Planet


DEBATE 2
Contestants: Christie, Paul, Carson, Bush, Huckabee, Clinton
Contestant Attire: Animal Costumes
Moderators: Samuel L Jackson, Megyn Kelly, Brian Williams
Moderator attire theme: Togas
Setting: Public Library
Extra Debate Rules: For one round, candidates must speak in pig latin
Sponsor: Willie's Reserve
Channel: Fox News


DEBATE 3
Contestants: Fiorina, Cruz, Jindal, Gilmore, Bernie
Contestant Attire: Pajamas
Moderators: Candy Crowley, Bill O'Reilly, Rachel Maddow
Moderator attire theme: Sea Captain
Setting: Meat Freezer
Extra Debate Rules: Profanity Allowed
Sponsor: Trojan Condoms
Channel: Comedy Central (with added laugh track)

[ShadowRocket]

Top 10 in an average of national polls conducted between September 17 and October 25, with no kiddie table.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Five candidates each, three debates.

The names would be randomly drawn from a hat.

I did this just for kicks and added things like setting, moderators, attire, etc. I also added 1 Dem candidate/possible candidate for each of the debates. Here's what I got:

DEBATE 1
Contestants: Graham, Rubio, Kasich, Santorum, Trump, Biden
Contestant Attire: Nude
Moderators: Cenk Uygur, Chris Matthews, Rush Limbaugh
Moderator attire theme: Rocky Horror Picture Show
Setting: Burning Man
Extra Debate Rules: 1 shot of alcohol by each of the candidates every 5 minutes
Sponsor: National Rifle Association
Channel: Animal Planet


DEBATE 2
Contestants: Christie, Paul, Carson, Bush, Huckabee, Clinton
Contestant Attire: Animal Costumes
Moderators: Samuel L Jackson, Megyn Kelly, Brian Williams
Moderator attire theme: Togas
Setting: Public Library
Extra Debate Rules: For one round, candidates must speak in pig latin
Sponsor: Willie's Reserve
Channel: Fox News


DEBATE 3
Contestants: Fiorina, Cruz, Jindal, Gilmore, Bernie
Contestant Attire: Pajamas
Moderators: Candy Crowley, Bill O'Reilly, Rachel Maddow
Moderator attire theme: Sea Captain
Setting: Meat Freezer
Extra Debate Rules: Profanity Allowed
Sponsor: Trojan Condoms
Channel: Comedy Central (with added laugh track)

This would work if you hadn't forgotten to include Pataki.

[defe07]

Have the 15 final candidates be divided into 3 debates of 5 candidates each. Have 3 pots: pot 1, pot 2 and pot 3. Candidates allocated in the pots will be decided by their polling numbers. At the end of the debates, people can vote online or by text message to decide who won each debate. The 3 debate winners face-off in a final free-for-all debate. The winner is secured automatic top spot on the early state ballots!

[Penelope]

The top 8 in polling since the CNN debate, with no 'kiddie table' would be ideal. I'm pretty sure this would only exclude Paul and Kasich, who have been showing up and giving debate performances as dull as Walker's.

[Why]

Top 6, no kiddie table.