Did Anybody Watch the Debate?

A breakdown of how everyone did in last night's Republican debate https://t.co/yuXRdLZAhe pic.twitter.com/zfTgVJCHoz

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 29, 2015

I always let the NY Times catch me up after the fact.  It's easier that way and takes way less time.  Plus, my friend said that they just yelled at each other.  I definitely don't need to watch that.

Some notes:

"If there was one clear loser, it was CNBC. The main moderators — Becky Quick, Carl Quintanilla and John Harwood, who is also a contributor to The New York Times — lost control early and never quite regained it. The result: a chaotic hodgepodge, with the moderators talking over not just the candidates but one another."

They say Rubio did well.  He "recount[ed] his background as the son of a bartender and maid, this time implicitly contrasting himself with Mr. Bush."  That comparison ought to play with large swathes of America, and he can make against almost all of his fellow candidates.  NYT says it was aimed at Bush, but it could as easily have hit Trump.

Bush's campaign is dead.  This is not news, but the fact that he spent half the night shadow-boxing with Trump and the other half with his own protege, Rubio, is a bad sign.  He should withdraw.  This is embarrassing.

Ted Cruz said the first thing I've ever liked about him.  If voters are looking for “someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy.”  Good for him!  One thing we do not need is a nice guy in the Oval Office.

Since I support Gov. John Kasich, I'll quote his entire section:
Gov. John R. Kasich opened the debate with a sharp critique of the outsider candidates, Mr. Carson and Mr. Trump. “My great concern is that we are on the verge, perhaps, of picking someone who cannot do this job,” he said. Though he also trumpeted his ability to balance budgets, cut taxes and create jobs, he repeatedly returned to the attack. “To talk about we’re just gonna have a 10 percent tithe, and that’s how we’re gonna fund the government?” he said. “And we’re going to just fix everything with waste, fraud and abuse? Or that we’re just going to be great?”

More people should be talking about this.  Government is not necessarily an exercise for amateurs.  Some of what have passed for "policy proposals" from the peanut gallery are ludicrous.  Granted, Congress would never pass a tithe, but still...

Chris Christie: “We have ISIS and Al Qaeda attacking us, and we’re talking about fantasy football?”
Well.  There is a case to be made for regulating sports betting, but I will agree that it falls well below the threshold of subjects that ought to show up in a Presidential debate.  Who's going to make that THE issue?

Eh...  The also-rans also ran.  Ben Carson is leading the polls, so I probably ought to cover him, but really, who cares?  He's gonna collapse in a month, and I'll be shocked if his voters don't defect first to Ted Cruz and then to Marco Rubio.  My take on it as of this writing is that Rubio has a clear path to the nomination if he can just stay out of his own way, but he's gonna get beat badly by Hillary Clinton in the general based on his performance--or lack thereof--in the Senate.  As I've said many times, Kasich (and to a lesser extent, Bush) are the GOP's only hopes of actually winning the election outright, but actual Republicans don't seem to like either one.  For better or worse, there aren't enough RINOs* like me to make a difference.

*RINO: Republican in Name Only.  As opposed to Libertarian.