Primary Race Coming Into View

[Shrek]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/primary-race-coming-into-view

With months of campaigning already under their belts there are 5 to 7 candidates who’ve managed to generate any public support at all. There’s the top five: Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris and Buttigieg. There are maybe a couple others who have barely generated any public support but are still distinguishable from the great majority who have yet to manage even as much as 1% or even half a percent of support nationally or in any state.

All of these faux candidates should really get out of the race. Anyone can run of course. It’s a free country. But because of what happened in 2016, the DNC has created a hyper-fair, hyper-equitable system for structuring the primary contest so that no one will feel, no one can claim that they were shunted out of the process, had the establishment rig the contest in favor of others, etc. The rubber meets the road in the organizing of debates. The upshot of that effort is that Elizabeth Warren, in many ways the most interesting and important contender at the moment, is relegated to what amounts to the JV debate and is not even allowed to face the other 4 or 5 real contenders in the primaries. Everyone who can’t surmount the zero percent barrier, certainly after the debates, should just drop out.

Extreme procedural fairness, in this sense, can end up being unfair to voters.

[left-of-center2012]

1. "Everyone who can't surmount the zero percent barrier, certainly after the debates, should drop out"

I'd make the cut off point 5%.

If you're at or below 5% in polls after the debate,
drop out.

[Salviati]

2. Yeah, I think they were a little too generous in the polling cutoff for the second round of debates.

I hope that some people who fail to get traction after this first round have the grace to drop out before the second round of debates, even if their poling numbers technically qualify. The donor qualifications seem to be what people are worrying about. I guess we can expect to see a lot of ads asking for "Just $1.00" between the first and second round of debates...