How Carly Fiorina earned a spot on the big stage at the GOP debate
September 2, 2015
The organizers of the next Republican presidential debate have announced changes to debate criteria that mean former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina will almost certainly join the rest of the top-tier candidates on the main stage at the Reagan Library on Sept. 16.

"CNN reevaluated its criteria and decided to add a provision that better reflects the state of the race since the first Republican presidential debate in August," the network announced. "Now, any candidate who ranks in the top 10 in polling between August 6 and September 10 will be included."

The CNN move is being greeted as a positive development, and not only for the most obvious reason, which is that a woman will be in the mix, in contrast to the 10-man tableau that a huge national television audience saw at the first debate on Aug. 6 in Cleveland.

Fiorina also had fairness on her side, say supporters. The original rules would have made the cut according to an average of polls conducted between July 16 and Sept. 10. That arithmetic minimized the significant rise in Fiorina's numbers since she gave what was widely reviewed as the single best performance of the evening in Cleveland, despite being relegated to the earlier, non-prime-time "undercard" debate of longshot contenders.

Now, Fiorina's presence on the main stage -- which, under the new formula, may end up including more than 10 candidates -- is likely to make that faceoff a far more interesting debate.

"We are very pleased that CNN changed its mind. We've been hearing from people across the country," said John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. "They want to see the best debate possible."

In the enormous Republican field, she is the only one who has demonstrated anything that rivals the thrust-and-parry skills of front-runner Donald Trump -- another political outsider who comes from the business world. Trump dominated the main stage in Cleveland, in part because none of his rivals had any idea how to take him on.

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Posted by Ken at 1:43 AM