Donald Trump bows out of moderating Republican debate

Circus called off due to lack of clowns.

Circus called off due to lack of clowns.

Noooooooo!

Donald Trump says he's withdrawing as moderator of a GOP presidential debate in Iowa.

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were the only Republican candidates who agreed to the Dec. 27 debate, sponsored by the conservative website Newsmax.

Not fair! I would have watched a Trump-Gingrich-Santorum debate! We all would have! How dare they take this away from us!

Trump says he's withdrawing because he hasn't ruled out running for president himself yet, via a third party. I think the odds of Trump running are next to nil, because actually running would involve doing actual hard work, which seems out of character, but I suppose this is a better face-saver than admitting the obvious, which is that you can't very well have a presidential "debate" if nearly all the candidates have said they hate the idea and aren't coming. Sniff.

Ah well. Maybe this will clear the way for a new moderator, someone even more ridiculous. Not sure who that would be, but I have confidence Republicans can come up with somebody. When it comes to ridiculous, they've got a deep bench.