Does Ben Carson's 10 percent in national polls lift him out of the vanity candidate category?
The massive number of announced and likely Republican presidential candidates isn't just a problem for staging debates, it's a broader
problem for news coverage. There are as many as 16 likely Republican candidates, though the presidency isn't the real goal for some of them:
For candidates, barriers to entry are lower than in the past, according to [Charlie] Mahtesian, who noted that presidential hopefuls are no longer expected to guarantee victory in their home states or to have recently won an election. And the incentives are now higher, he said, given that national exposure could help propel a candidate's budding media career.
In other words, we should be holding Fox News responsible for some of these candidates. But it can be difficult to separate out the future talk show hosts from the candidates really running for office:
There’s always the fear, too, of ignoring a candidate with low poll numbers early on, like Santorum in the 2012 election cycle, to give attention to someone more soundbite-friendly, like Herman Cain. In January 2012, Santorum won the Iowa Caucuses and mounted a surprising run against Mitt Romney, the better-funded establishment favorite. For that reason, some have expressed concerns about giving oxygen to 2016 candidates more likely gunning for a TV contract -– or promoting an existing show -– instead of to candidates with serious policy objectives.
“Our social media culture rewards vanity candidates, unfortunately,” said Chuck Todd, NBC News’ political director and host of "Meet the Press." “That’s a resource suck. And it is going to hurt serious second-tier candidates collectively. I just hope not to be the network that does that.”
But at the same time, you've got Santorum, a former (if long ago) senator and winner of
10 states in the 2012 primaries, polling at 1.2 percent nationally and 3.2 percent in Iowa (which he won in 2012), while Ben Carson, who fits the vanity candidate profile, leads him in those polls, and by a considerable margin nationally. Is it right for the media to dismiss Carson as a vanity candidate and focus on candidates like Santorum, Rick Perry, and Bobby Jindal because they're "serious," having been elected to statewide office? But given that Santorum won Iowa while lagging badly in national polls, it's hard to dismiss him, either.
And yet, somehow, despite this deluge of extreme long-shot Republicans looking to get rich after their campaigns end, reporters are also incredibly angry that Hillary Clinton doesn't have enough competition. Go figure.