Republican debates promise to be messy affairs, with more than two dozen candidates spilling out to the margins of the frame. But this is fitting, and it should make Republicans proud.

Republicans have 14 candidates of all stripes — male and female; black, white, Indian, Hispanic; governors, CEOs, senators; from the Northeast, the South, the middle and the West; Tea Partiers, establishment types and dedicated moderates, a bachelor, some proud family men and a mom.