CNN announced its criteria for the next Republican presidential debate, which won’t take place until December 15th in Las Vegas, and it seems rather generous considering the proximity to the Iowa caucuses. It’s so generous that at this point in time, it would not reduce the number of candidates on the main stage from the previous Fox Business News debate. It would, however, have two candidates swapping positions:

Candidates must meet one of three criteria in polls conducted between October 29 and December 13 and recognized by CNN: An average of at least 3.5% nationally; at least 4% in Iowa; or at least 4% in New Hampshire. …

Right now, nine candidates would make cut for the Republican National Committee sanctioned debate at The Venetian in Las Vegas: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Paul is on the bubble for the debate. He clears the national hurdle of 3.5%, but doesn’t average 4% in either of the first two states to vote in the 2016 nominating process.

Christie would make the main debate stage as of Friday — but he did not qualify in the last GOP debate, hosted by Fox Business Network.

On one level, that makes some sense. Christie made an impact on the last debate — mainly by being in the undercard, though — while Paul has not had much of an impact on any of them. However, that debate performance hasn’t done much for Christie’s standing in the race; his RCP average is almost exactly where it was 30 days ago, before the last two debates.

Another issue this raises is that even though Paul isn’t exactly winning attention in these debates, he is the only significant libertarian voice in the field. Christie falls more into the GOP’s “establishment” wing, which will be represented by Bush and Kasich by any definition, and perhaps Rubio under some definitions. Having Paul exit the stage may exclude a segment of potential GOP voters from the discussion, or at least make them less interested in watching it.

However, the current RCP averages would also push Kasich (3.4% nationally, 2.3% Iowa), Fiorina (3.2% nationally), and Christie (2.8% nationally, 2.5% Iowa) off the stage too. The difference is in which polls CNN chooses to recognize for the analysis, but it’s very possible that the same trends in those polls will reflect the RCP aggregate by December 13th’s decisions. If so, that would leave a main event with just Trump, Carson, Rubio, Cruz, and Bush. That would certainly be an interesting debate, and one that would allow for more time to have interactions between the candidates and more detailed responses on policy. Why not just bump the criteria up to a very reasonable 5% across the board, and let the others duke it out in an undercard? They might just end up having more of a chance of a breakout, while voters get to focus on the frontrunners more specifically, and more critically.

Note: Salem Media Group, which owns Hot Air, is CNN’s partner in this debate. Hugh Hewitt will be a moderator on the panel again, and I will be covering the debate on location.