The campaign for 2016 got serious this week as 17 Republicans debated in Cleveland.

Democrats gave themselves until October to round up enough candidates to hold their first debate on CNN. They are hoping Joe Biden will jump in the ring with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders so they can draw over 20 million viewers like the Republicans did on Fox News.

Here’s a way to guarantee a big audience for the follow up debates: switch a few candidates. Just like major league baseball has interleague play, invite a couple of Republicans to join a Democrat debate. I suggest Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee. Then the Republicans can make room for Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley in their next debate. Is there anyone who wouldn’t like to see Sanders take on Trump, or Hillary and Carly battle it out on stage?

President Obama gave a speech on global warming and how the burning of fossil fuels has to be cut drastically. As I listened to his passionate plea to save the world from carbon dioxide, I assumed he was speaking in China. After all, China contributes more to global warming than Europe and the United States combined.

But, no, he was demanding that we shut down our coal-burning power plants and cut back on natural gas and oil consumption. He did, however, assure us that our bills for electricity, heating, food, and driving would go down, not up, as we switch to wind, solar and renewable fuels. I’m surprised he did not remind us of the economic prosperity enjoyed by all Americans when we previously relied mainly on wind, solar and renewable fuels. That was about 150 to 200 years ago. Yes, the good old days.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

(Will Rogers died 80 years ago, Aug. 15, 1935, at Pt. Barrow, Alaska. Here are highlights of his newspaper articles for Aug. 9, 10, and 12.)

“Bad weather. Not a plane mushed out of Juneau yesterday… Tourists are still arriving by the boatload. Mining activity everywhere. Not much news of Congress and what we do get is mostly bad. Guess it’s about the same down there.” DT #2812, Aug. 9, 1935

“Get your map out and look this up (Aklavik, Northwest Territory). The mouth of the Mackenzie River, right on the Arctic Ocean. Eskimos are thicker than rich men at a ‘Save the Constitution Convention.’ We are headed for famous Herschel Island in the Arctic. Old Wiley (Post) had to duck his head to keep from bumping it as we flew under the Arctic Circle.” DT #2813, Aug. 10, 1935

“We are sure having a great time. If we hear of whales or polar bears in the Arctic, or a big herd of caribou or reindeer we fly over and see it. Friday and Saturday we visited the old Klondike district, Dawson City, Bonanza, Eldorado. Say, there is a horse here, the furthest north of any horse, and he eats fish and travels on snowshoes.” DT #2814, Aug. 12, 1935