Carly Fiorina belongs on the debate stage Saturday. She has the intelligence, values, biography, experience, and temperament to be taken seriously by serious conservatives. Like my friend Aaron Goldstein, I too have no idea why an obviously qualified candidate has not gotten more traction with Republican primary voters.

But it’s easy enough to understand ABC’s motivation for keeping her off the stage, even though there is room for her now that several vanity candidates have hit the silk. It would be difficult for that liberal echo-chamber to flog the narrative that the Republican Party is just a bunch of tired old country club white guys if a smart cookie of the female persuasion is in the Republican presidential mix. And in previous debates she has mixed it up very well with the boys, thank you very much.