Unannounced candidates should make up their minds

By Sioux City Journal

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In our view, undecided holdouts among potential Republican presidential candidates need to make up their minds and answer one question.

Are you in or out?

Enough exploring and testing of the waters.

With a debate hosted by the state Republican Party and Fox News, followed by the much-anticipated Straw Poll, planned in Iowa in a little over two months, it's time to finalize and formalize the field of candidates. Out of respect not simply to Republican caucus and primary voters in Iowa and elsewhere, but also to announced candidates, the party, and the process itself, potential candidates should decide one way or the other - today, not tomorrow.

We understand this is, for many reasons, an immense decision, but it stretches credulity to the breaking point for any potential candidate to claim he or she hasn't had sufficient time already to study the landscape and their prospects and make a determination. In fact, because this is such a big decision, we would be surprised to hear of an unannounced candidate who hasn't been thinking about a presidential campaign for several years.

Here in Iowa, where the process begins, the door is wide open to any man or woman who wants to campaign for the Republican nomination, but we believe voters - who are, after all, the most important components in this process - want and deserve to know what the true field looks like so they can begin earnestly investing themselves in a study of committed candidates.

Simply put, unannounced candidates should stop straddling the fence and stringing everyone along. Let those who are in forge ahead and let those who are not go home.