Carly Fiorina's blessing in disguise

The staff of The World and Everything in It has profiled 22 possible 2016 presidential candidates in its “White House Wednesday” series. Now they take a look at who’s ahead and who’s making moves as the primaries get closer.

First runner up. Getting squeezed out of last week’s Republican presidential debate was supposed to be bad news for seven underdog candidates, but for at least one of those dark horse contenders, it may have been a blessing in disguise. The candidates who didn’t make the main debate participated in a televised forum earlier in the day. The New York Times, National Review, and NBC News all declared former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina the undisputed winner. Even though that 5 p.m. debate drew just 6 million viewers, fewer competitors shared the smaller stage. Without Donald Trump vacuuming up camera time, Fiorina was able to hold court. She took aim at Hillary Clinton, the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination: “Hillary Clinton lies about Benghazi. She lies about emails. She is still defending Planned Parenthood, and she is still her party’s frontrunner.”

Standing for life. Among the big topics in last week’s debates was the issue of life. Moderators grilled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker over his support for laws that limit abortions without exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. “I’ve said many a time that that unborn child can be protected, and there are many other alternatives that will also protect the life of the mother,” Walker said. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., made clear last Thursday he shares Walker’s stance on protecting human life in all cases. Rubio has supported abortion legislation that includes exceptions, but he said he does not advocate for those exceptions. Instead, he pledged to support any bill that reduces the number of abortions.

More debates. The next Republican debate will air on CNN on Sept. 16 from the Reagan Library in California. The top 10 candidates will again be in one debate with everyone else in another group. But CNN might air both debates during primetime. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has also announced its primary debate schedule. Democrats have six debates scheduled right now—about half as many as Republicans. In the 2008 election, Democrats held more than 20 debates. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has said the DNC is rigging the system in Hillary Clinton’s favor, and he’s calling on the party to schedule more debates.

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