CANCEL THE DEBATES — AND THE LYING SWINE MODERATORS

More than a dozen Republicans are likely to run for president. Nearly all are serious, accomplished people who deserve a hearing. But it may be difficult to find a stage large enough to accommodate podiums for them all when they "debate."

I put "debate" in quotes, because with so many participants, real debate is impossible. It could become a farce that would reflect poorly on the candidates and the GOP.

The herd won’t thin much until delegation selection begins in January. The Republican National Committee plans to hold a debate a month beginning in August. That’s a big mistake.

Fox News and CNN, slated to moderate the first two debates, say they’ll limit participation to the top 10, as determined by national polls. That’s hard to do fairly. Most candidates below the top 3 or 4 are bunched together within a poll’s margin of error. They have little popular support, chiefly because most voters aren’t paying attention yet, don’t know who they are.

And 10 is still at least twice as many as there should be to have a meaningful debate. The RNC should cancel all debates scheduled for this year, replace them with candidate forums to be held two weekends a month, beginning in August or September.

Debates rarely last more than two hours. With so many participants, nobody would be able to say anything of substance. In a forum lasting 4 to 6 hours, each candidate would have time to make a case.

After all have spoken, they would come on stage together to answer questions from the audience.

To prevent long-winded filibusters in a Q & A, each question should be directed to a particular candidate. He or she – and only he or she – would have up to 5 minutes to answer it. The only exception would be if in answering, a candidate criticizes another. The candidate criticized should have up to 5 minutes to respond.

The RNC should conduct a straw poll at each forum. Whether the results reflect how well the candidates performed, or how good their campaigns were in packing audiences with supporters, they’ll provide a means to cull the herd for the first debate, before the Iowa caucuses in January.

Participation should be limited to 4 or 5 candidates, determined by candidates’ standing in national polls, which in January – after 8 or 10 candidate forums — will be a more legitimate measure of viability than in August.

Results of the straw polls could break ties among candidates separated by a percentage point or less.

Participation in the next debate, before the New Hampshire primary, should be limited to the top 4 or 5 in Iowa.

In the past, debates consisted mostly of journalists asking loaded "gotcha" questions about issues few Republicans care about. So the RNC must select the moderator, or be able to veto the choice of the network televising the debate. If the network won’t comply, it shouldn’t be permitted to sponsor a debate.

If only Fox News and CSPAN televise the debates, that would be all right. Republicans who want to watch them can find those channels as easily as ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN.

The most egregious mistake Republicans made in elections past was to let Democrats with bylines load the dice and set the agenda.

Republicans must be proactive against media bias. The unwillingness of the suits at ABC even to slap George Stephanopoulos on the wrist for his egregious breach of journalism ethics makes clear they are as deeply in the tank for Hillary Clinton as he is.

ABC shouldn’t be permitted to sponsor a debate, should be denied accreditation to attend them. That’s for news organizations, not a propaganda arm of the DNC.

If the RNC takes a strong stand against media bias, it’ll have popular support. In a Rasmussen poll of likely voters May 21, 61 percent said they do not trust the political news they’ve been getting. That’s a 16 percentage point jump since last October.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  He is the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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