Ridiculous and remote Commander-in-Chief fails regularly (8)
I believe the answer is:
farcical
'ridiculous' is the definition.
('farcical' can be a synonym of 'ridiculous')
'remote commander-in-chief fails regularly' is the wordplay.
'remote' becomes 'far' ('far' can be a synonym of 'remote').
'commander-in-chief' becomes 'cic'.
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternate letters of 'fails' are 'al'.
'far'+'cic'+'al'='FARCICAL'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for farcical that I've seen before include "Utterly ridiculous like bad comedy" , "Really ridiculous as in low-brow comedy" , "4 [COMIC]" , "Quite ridiculous, perhaps in play" , "Completely ludicrous." .)