Hats off to CNN for changing their debate criteria. It would have been easy — and natural — just to dig in, but they made the right call. I believe CNN’s version of what happened here — they came up with standards that no one would have found objectionable in theory, but they didn’t work out in practice because of an unexpected dearth of August polling. Even as the RNC was getting hammered over the last few days for standing by while Carly was going to get excluded, it was working with CNN and trying to figure out a solution. (This is a little ticklish because the RNC can’t set the criteria itself.) These discussions led to a clever formula to get Carly on the main stage without knocking anyone else off. Well done.