This was reported in several places this morning, and I'm a bit surprised it's not already being debated. Apparently CNN is holding a place for Joe Biden in the first debate, but he has to announce that he's running within two weeks:
CNN announced its debate criteria on Monday, making clear that Vice President Joe Biden will have the chance to make it onto the first debate stage on Oct. 13, should he declare.
In order to qualify for the debate stage, candidates must have achieved an average of 1 percent in three polls, recognized by CNN, released between Aug. 1 and Oct. 10. Candidates must also declare by Oct. 14, CNN said, meaning that Biden could announce his candidacy the day of the debate and still qualify.
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Biden will have chance to appear in first Democratic debate
I think this is great news; time for Joe to make a decision, for everyone's sake.
Apparently the "criteria" are loose enough so all the current candidates qualify:
The loose criteria also allows for every declared Democratic candidate — former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee — to take the stage on Oct. 13 in Las Vegas.
O’Malley has struggled to gain traction as the party’s progressive alternative to Clinton, a space that’s solidly occupied by Sanders. Although he has reached 1 percent in enough polls to qualify for the debate, he's tied with Webb at 0.8 percent in a RealClearPolitics average of recent national polling. However, he has sole hold of third place in Iowa and New Hampshire in the low single digits.
Webb and Chafee, both hardly a fixture on the national campaign trail, have similar struggles in the polls. Chafee has failed to register above 0 in each of the last five national polls. Despite that, CNN's debate criteria uses polls dating back to Aug. 1, so Chafee qualifies.
I personally am not a great Biden fan for various reasons, but I'd like to see him in the debates. Conversely, having the no-hope Chafee and Webb is going to dilute the debate (one could say the same about O'Malley, for that matter).
Anyway, let's bring it on and get some enthusiasm and debate on the Dem side instead of having it be extinguished by Trump, Jeb!, and the rest of the Clown Car.