Rachel Maddow moderating the first Democratic debates is a good thing

The announcement that MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow would be one of the moderators of the first set of Democratic debates was greeted with derision among some conservatives on Twitter, but it’s actually a good thing.

As a reminder, with a field of over 20 candidates, Democrats are facing an even more difficult position staging debates early on than Republicans were in 2016. To avoid the appearance of a undercard/main event that Republicans had when they held both events on the same night and divided the field by polling numbers, Democrats will have two debates, with 10 candidates on each night, and randomly pick the participants. The two debates will be hosted by NBC on June 26 and 27.