Most of US politics is a side-show to distract people from actual issues that we might otherwise use our resources on.
For example, here we are discussing this absurd red herring, instead of figuring out how to get rid of Citizens United, which the people overwhelmingly disapprove of.
Even from within the tragicomedy of “Republican party strategy”, both parties always field a parade of candidates, many of whom have no real chance, mainly to legitimize the whole process, have fall guys, make the eventual choice look better by comparison, and distract us from the actual lack of choice we have in our supposed democracy.