Fox News Just Made a Game Changing Announcement for 2016

 With at least 16 Republican candidates vying for the Presidential nomination from the GOP, the rivalry has been growing more and more intense.

The TV networks have had a logistical problem on their hands with this large number.  There are just too many candidates to have a thorough, though-provoking debate.

At first, the solution was to limit the number to the top 10 in the polls.  But, a number of the lower polling candidates cried foul.

But now, according to Western Journalism, Fox News has come up with a solution to give everyone a chance to get face time before the American people:

There’s been a ton of speculation recently about which GOP candidates would make the cut for the first presidential debate to be hosted by Fox News on August 6. Some have even wondered whether certain candidates have tried to up their game and increase their chances by sharpening their rhetoric — witness Lindsey Graham’s repeated shots at Donald Trump, referring to him as a “wrecking ball” who is “selling fear and prejudice.”

Now, thanks to a big change just announced by Fox News, Graham and other low-ranking Republican contenders for the nomination will have a chance to make their case on TV in just about a week. Politico reports that the cable network will have an early debate that’s open to all contenders who haven’t polled high enough to qualify for the prime-time event.

“The change amounts to an insurance policy for candidates who were in danger of being disqualified from the vital first debate based on low polls — Carly Fiorina, former New York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).” Politico notes that this change means all 16 announced candidates will get important TV time on the debate stage in Cleveland. Based on current polling, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal would also be in the lower-tier of debaters appearing in the earlier time slot on Fox News.

This seems like a fair way to do things.  Although it is doubtful that all 16 candidates will compete far into the 2016 Primary season, this move by Fox News insures that everyone running will be able to briefly make their case before the American people.

Western Journalism adds more details:

Prior to the rules change, the network was reserving the stage for only those candidates tallying at least 1 percent in national preference polls.

According to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, the current top 10 for the Fox News prime-time debate would likely be:

Donald Trump, former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.), Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.), Sen. Rubio (Fla.), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.), Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.), and Gov. John Kasich (Ohio).

The early debate is scheduled to last an hour, the later one closer to two hours.

This is also fair in that since it is so early in the campaign season, polls swing wildly from week to week.  Most voters haven’t remotely made up their minds yet as to which candidate they want to support.

In fact, many voters probably have more than one choice in mind at this point.

This opportunity to see all the candidates for at some period of time may reduce the number of possibles in the voters’ minds.

The top tier candidates will most likely be unaffected by this first debate and will move on to the second, more formal debate, but near the bottom of the magic list of “10”, there could be some jockeying and changes after the results of the first debate.

The only thing the Republican Party must improve on since the disasters of the 2012 debate season is not to allow Democrat operatives masquerading as reporters to run any debates; especially Republican debates.

Both George Stephanopoulos and Candy Crowley worked as hard as they could to discredit Republicans and insure Barack Obama’s re-election.