Outside of John Harwood, the CNBC moderators did a piss-poor job of preparation and debate control. But they asked substantive questions, which might be why the candidates were so upset.
But the deeper problems with the debate are that there are too many candidates. What - exactly - is Rand Paul doing on that stage? Chris Christie? Kasich can at least say he showed movement after the first JV debate. But that movement has stalled.
If you have 10 people on stage, the debate will be a farce. Period.
But the reason there are 10 people on stage is that the coalition that constitutes the Reagan Era GOP is fracturing. Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee simply don't occupy the same political space as John Kasich and Jeb Bush. And the people who support Carson are fed up with being told that Planned Parenthood is evil, and yet not seeing the GOP go to the mattresses for them on this issue.
I don't know what will force the GOP to examine its own problems, but I don't see it happening as long as they blame NBC for the fact that their candidates are a joke.
(UPDATE: I didn't realize the cancelled debate was on Telemundo. I guess that makes sense. If you thought the questions asked by the network that gave us Rick Santelli were tough, just wait until you have to answer questions from Jorge Ramos. In fact, this feels entirely staged.)
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