So here’s the situation we face now: the RNC has kept an iron claw on the debate process, preventing candidates from facing off in any other venue than their predetermined choices. They’ve done so while allowing the leading candidate, former president Donald Trump, to skate by, avoiding any requirement to debate or participate. The effect has been embarrassing to say the least — too many candidates, too little time and a Univision-backed questioner in the second debate who was heinous, inaccurate and essentially functioned as a Democratic plant.

The RNC has done a terrible job of managing this cycle, just like they did in 2016 — except worse, because nothing this year has been very unpredictable. But they threaten anyone who wants to break out of their management cabal, like some form of politically impotent OPEC run by model UN nerds, with the most disastrous of consequences. Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie just experienced this when they were supposed to be on the same Fox set for thirty minutes!

So what should be done? It’s simple: there are realistically only two candidates in the field with the resources, support and capacity to take on the once upon a time incumbent — and that’s Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. As it happens, both also have a great deal to say about foreign policy and the differences in approach they would offer as president. They should break this cartel at its knees. Just announce you’re having a debate, or two, perhaps in Iowa and South Carolina, regardless of what the RNC says.

[That would be best for both DeSantis and Haley. I’d bet that we could find a few people at Salem who could serve as moderators, too — moderators who have a better sense of the concerns of Republican primary voters than, oh, Stu Varney and Ilia Calderón. I’ll nominate Hugh Hewitt, although I’d love to see Dennis Prager take a shot at it too. I wouldn’t mind taking a whack at it myself. — Ed]