Democrats should bring back the "kiddie table" debates.

On Friday, Democrats announced that after a random drawing, the 20 Democratic candidates participating in the first set of primary debates next week will be split into the following two groups:

NEWS - the Democratic debate groups



PURPLE: bernie, harris, biden, buttigieg, bennet, williamson, swalwell gillibrand, yang, hickenlooper



ORANGE: booker, warren, beto, klobuchar, delaney, tulsi, castro, ryan, de blasio, Inslee



NBC will now decide which night goes first — Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) June 14, 2019

What this means in practice is that the surging Massachussetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has been threatening Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' grip on second place, will be stuck on stage with candidates in the low-single digits, while self-help author Marianne Williamson, who has barely registered in polls, gets to debate Sanders, Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., — in other words, the other candidates with relatively decent polling. This is totally ridiculous.

During the 2016 nominating process, in response to a historically crowded field, Republicans decided to split their candidates up by their polling averages, creating a main event with the higher polling candidates, and an "undercard" debate with the ones with lower polling. The undercard debate was mocked mercilessly, and the DNC was determined to avoid the appearance of a "kiddie table" debacle lest they be accused of tipping the scales toward one candidate or against another, and so they decided to go with a random lottery system.

The DNC may want to avoid charges of rigging the system that plagued them in 2016, but at the end of the day, managing a field of over 20 candidates is going to always create problems and require certain arbitrary decisions. The criteria for qualifying for the debate, for instance, is already coming under criticism for denying a spot to Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

For all its flaws, the "kiddie table" provided all candidates with the ability to be on a debate stage, but ensured that the leading candidates would be able to debate with each other.

Sure, one could argue that Warren could shine by essentially being the leader on her debate stage. But this isn't about her campaign as much as it is to voters. And voters trying to decide between Warren and other candidates should get to see her on the same stage as those she's realistically competing with.