Second Debates Are Over - It's Time For Some To Go

The first two Democratic candidate debates are finally over. Thank goodness! Now it's time to winnow down the field to the real candidates, and get rid of the narcissistic wannabes.

The field of 25 was always ridiculous. I guess the party needed to be fair and give everyone a chance, but the truth is that most of that 25 never stood a chance of being nominated. It's time for them to go! At least half of them should drop out -- if not more.

One thing that will help is the third debate. The party says the requirements to participate in the third debate will be more stringent. That debate will be held on September 12th, and if needed, September 13th. Let us cross our fingers and hope that second night is not needed. It's time for all the leaders to be on the same debate platform so Democratic (and Independent) voters can get serious about who they want to be represented by in November of 2020.

The requirements to participate in the September debate are 130,000 unique donors and to register at least 2% in four respected polls. Personally, I think those requirements are not stringent enough. It will probably still allow about 10 to 12 candidates to participate, and that's still too many. If after several months of campaigning and two debates, a candidate only has 2% support and 130,000 donors, then they are just engaging in wishful thinking -- not a real presidential campaign.

Here's who is likely to make the third debate stage, according to The New York Times:

Seven candidates have already met both qualification thresholds and are guaranteed a spot on stage. They are:

• Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

• Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.

• Senator Kamala Harris of California

• Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas

• Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont

• Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

Three other candidates are very close: The former housing secretary Julián Castro and the entrepreneur Andrew Yang have surpassed 130,000 donations and each have three of the four qualifying polls they need, while Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota has met the polling threshold and has about 120,000 donors.

Beyond them, only three candidates have even a single qualifying poll to their name: the impeachment activist Tom Steyer (2 polls), Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii (1) and former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado (1). 

We asked all three of their campaigns to provide donor numbers so we could assess where they stood. Ms. Gabbard had just under 114,000 donors as of Wednesday night. A spokesman for Mr. Steyer said he was “on track to collect the required number of donors to make the September debate stage” but did not give a number. Mr. Hickenlooper’s campaign did not respond, but Politico reported a month ago that he had only 13,000 donors.

The other 11 candidates in the race have no qualifying polls to their name, and they all went into this week’s debates seeking a viral moment that would attract new donors and lift them, even briefly, in the polls.