Republicans artificially expand their clown car in a bid to look diverse

Do Republicans even know who's in their presidential candidate clown car? The Republican National Committee has put a whopping 36 names on an online straw poll ... but those 36 don't include a couple of no-hopers who are actively campaigning, and do include quite a few who are not running:

The noncontenders that did make the straw poll list are a combination of 2012 also-rans (former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Rep. Ron Paul, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty), 2012 almost-rans (former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, South Dakota Sen. John Thune) and Republicans who haven’t signaled an intention to run but suggest an image of a diverse party (former Secretary of State Rice, New Hampshire Sen. Ayotte, former Florida Rep. Allen West, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley). Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is likely to be the only Republican woman to run for president.

Allen West? Next time he says something ludicrous and you're about to mentally write him off as a has-been of no relevance, remember that that's Allen West, RNC straw poll candidate. One of 36, sure, but still.

It's hilarious, though. In the real world, Republicans are worried that they'll have too many candidates to even fit on a debate stage and will be forced to resort to bleachers or some kind of Hollywood Squares set-up. But in image management land, they're clearly out there searching for every non-white Republican they can find to throw onto their list to look more diverse. Even if that means they have to get an extra clown car to fit everyone.