Republican candidates break from the RNC to negotiate their own debate guidelines. Guess who was not satisfied to stop there.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

Over the weekend, top staffers from all but one of the campaigns (Carly Fiorina didn’t send a representative) met in a hotel conference room in Virginia and agreed to take over the debate negotiating process. The Sunday night meeting effectively pushed the Republican National Committee out of the loop. The RNC had previously sought to control the primaries more than it did in 2012, when a long debate season forced eventual nominee Mitt Romney to shift farther to the right and open himself to criticism.

My understanding is that many of the candidates were upset that the moderators asked  them something called "questions" for which they were completely unprepared.

Okay so now after stomping their feet and acting like two year olds the candidates got their way and hopefully everybody is happy now.

What's that you say? They now want even more?  

After negotiating format changes to the CNBC Republican debate last week, the GOP’s presidential candidates have even more demands for the upcoming debates. 

The campaigns want more control over screen graphics (Jeb Bush’s campaign complained that CNBC misrepresented his accomplishments by showing a graphic that emphasized his work in private finance over his career as a governor), more leverage in determining the number of questions each candidate receives (several have complained that they don’t get enough speaking time), the institution of a two-hour time limit and the inclusion of opening and closing statements.

Seriously?  What are these morons going to do if they win the GOP nomination and have to face off against Hillary in debates they will have no control over? Hold their breath until the moderators give them a lollipop?

Well whatever, at least now things can move for.....wait, who is not breaking from the pack to negotiate his own deal?

Who else?

Donald Trump and his advisers have decided to work directly with television executives and take a lead role in negotiating the format and content of primary debates, which have become highly watched and crucial events in the 2016 race, according to Republicans familiar with their plans. 

Trump will reject a joint letter to television network hosts regarding upcoming primary debates drafted Sunday at a private gathering of operatives from at least 11 presidential campaigns, the Republicans said. 

The move by Trump, coming just hours after a group of Republican strategists huddled in the Washington suburbs to craft a list of possible demands, thwarts an effort by the campaigns and the letter’s drafter, longtime GOP attorney Ben Ginsberg, to find consensus and work collectively to negotiate terms.

So to be clear, the Republican candidates broke with the RNC to get debate conditions more to their liking, and Trump broke with THEM so that he could get those conditions ore to HIS liking.

You know if I had sat down to plan the destruction of the Republican presidential chances in 2016, I could not have come up with a better scenario.

I am spending a quarter of my monthly budget on popcorn these days, and I still keep running out.