The CNN Republican presidential debate of September 16 was supposed to be two hours long. But once it got started, it was so useful in portraying the views of the eleven candidates that CNN decided to extend it to three hours. It was closer to being a true debate than the August FOX debate had been. It is now as clear as anything that a debate with a large number of candidates can be successful. After tonight, there simply is no coherent argument for general election debates that only include the two major party nominees.

As mentioned here before, in all U.S. history, there has never been a presidential election in which more than seven candidates had enough presidential elector candidates to theoretically win the election.

UPDATE: the debate was watched by 23,000,000 viewers. See this story. That is the most-watched CNN program ever. Thanks to PoliticalWire for that link.

The North Carolina legislature has appointed a conference committee to work on HB 373, the bill on primary dates. The current law says the presidential primary is in February and the primary for other office is in May. The legislature almost certainly will set a later date for the presidential primary, because the February date violates national party rules. The most difficult aspect of the bill to predict is whether the legislature will move the non-presidential primary from May to March.

The conference committee members can be seen using this link. There are nine Republicans and two Democrats on the committee. Senator Bob Rucho is on the committee. He had been the original champion of holding the presidential primary in February, a few years ago.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Rubin v Padilla, 15-135, at its October 9 conference. No news from that conference will be announced by the court until Tuesday, October 13. Monday, October 12, is a federal holiday.