None of those non-superpowers can boast about having a leader of the nation who is also the leader of the free world.

Of course, if the American political and media culture continue on this downward spiral, then you won't be able to boast about that kind of leadership, either. And, that should, at least, concern you.

Woodwork creaks and out come the freaks.

Trump's public persona is the cocky winner, who always knows when to make his move, and leaves some poor schlub holding an empty bag (casino). His fans eat this up. The mythology is hard to restore once you lose it. If I'm right, we'll see it in the post debate polls. Beware the running averages, they will tend to lag.

Rant Paul: Aqua Buddha
Carly: Zenyatta
Huckabilly: Snake Handler
Walker: Undead

The End is near.

Take a look at India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUs48hJInpc

I would have to say that the fireworks did not materialize as hoped.

I saw one pundit noting that Paul came off as the sole rational candidate on foreign policy... after which he lamented about how pitiful a standard that was.

I think that as the field narrows, the debates are going to expose them all as un-presidential, un-serious types who would really prefer to answer fewer questions.

A

"Cohiba, where did that come from?"

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes it's a big dick.

Sad to say, we are exporting our political techniques abroad - UK, Israel, Mexico, probably Canada too.

Last night's 2 hr 47 m gab fest is Moby-Dickish in length and scope and fate. I couldn't sit through it. Not even today, with the ability to fast forward and fast backward. It's no classic, too many characters, obscure dialects and it just went on way too long. I doubt many people did watch the whole thing, except for a few hundred dedicated and well paid professionals whose job it is to cut up the carcass and render the blubber into a verdict about who won and who lost. By next morning if at all possible. Canned filets are an important byproduct....showing up free of charge on YouTube. Soon to be featured in heavily edited snippets attached to TV ads and such. I think this was the underlying intent of the entire enterprise. Lubricating political machinery. The gab fest itself was almost incidental.

Like nearly everybody else, I'm on line looking for well rendered verdicts that pass a smell test.

Graham clearly won the undercard debate, but he still has 0% in the polls, so it doesn't matter. His obsessions aren't shared by the public. Jindal strikes me a a total idiot.

The second debate was the one in which the "establishment" candidates were expected to take on Trump, and they did, but he emerged without a mark on him.

Fiorina claimed solidarity with the nation's women, even though she is about as anti-feminist as a woman in the contemporary period gets. Should the women of America really take umbrage at negative comments about her looks? I personally don't believe there's much outrage over it, mostly because women voters don't identify with Fiorina, much. Why should they? She's on the other side of almost every "women's" issue from them. Fiorina is a forceful and accomplished speaker, but she blatantly lies, as she did in her description of the Planned Parenthood tapes. The Republicans put a lot of stock in which of their "leaders" are most alpha. Fiorina acted like an alpha, so her performance is being lauded. But the pure falsity of many of her comments, coupled with her total inability to rebut the facts of her dismal resume mean that, while she may get a bounce in the polls, she has no real appeal for intelligent, informed voters. This problem is lessened by the fact there are few such voters in the Republican't Party.

Bush attempted to take Trump down, but Bush keeps reverting to the appearance of a delusional clone. Proclaiming that Worst "kept us safe" is just laughable. It shows that he lives in a fantasy world. In addition, his smug, superior smile when he's not talking is very repellent. I personally fail to see his appeal. I think he will continue to tank.

Huckabee came off as a bumbling fanatic.
Paul thinks he can make headway by being the unconventional smart kid, but he's no longer a kid, and his smarts are very much in question.
Cruz thinks his polished oratory will lift him, but establishment Republicans view him as unethical and clueless slime.
Rubio is articulate, and quick on his feet. He will see an uptick in support. Walker is a dud. He has nothing to offer, and he appears to be visibly degenerating.
Carson might have a chance at the nomination to be Mr. Rogers's replacement, but doesn't belong in politics.
Christy has all the appeal of a predatory snake.
Kasich just isn't mean enough to appeal to conservatives.

Trump won by not losing. If you want to win the fight, you have to knock out the champ. Trump is the champ. Fiorina will be lionized by the conservaboob press, but she has no real chance at the nomination. She probably will be the VP pick, because she's female. That's just how Republiclowns "think".

Rubio may challenge for the top spot in the polls, but his problems with his personal finances are crippling, and there hasn't even been any public discussion of them, to speak of. In addition, his so-called mastery of foreign affairs is soft, and the election is not going to turn on foreign policy.

So Trump remains the reigning leader for the nomination. He may not have helped himself in the debate, but that's largely irrelevant. Conservatives are conformists. The more polls Trump wins, the more they gravitate to him.

I haven't been able to find any snap polls covering the debate, but checking the futures markets, I see the following:

Bush and Rubio holding at 35% and 15% chance of securing the nomination respectively.

Trump trending down a bit to 13%

Walker, and Kasich also trending down towards 6% each

Carson trending rather sharply down in the immediate wake of the debate to just 5%. This is the first really steep decline Carson's fortunes, he's lost 50% of implied likelihood overnight. Interesting.

Fiorina continues to trend up since the last debate, albeit with a lot of noise in the signal.

With regard to US foreign policy and the many critical challenges it faces, from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific, the Republican presidential nomination campaign is particularly destructive to the credibility of a serious nation and its ability to engage effectively with the world.

And, that, I'm sad to say, is not amusing.

I had to download the CNN APP to watch the show, having ditched cable TV a while back. On balance, it wasn't worth the effort. The event was bloated, and that is not a reference to Trueheart who is giving a bad name to the lapband. With a jet in the background and ten suites in the foreground I was reminded of a long boarding delay.

The bloat started early with the customary and useless introductions. Cruz's remarks were embarrassingly bad, the other 9 were interchangeable parts. It wasn't like they needed to fill time, 10-12 extra minutes of actual re-part-e would come in handy.

Trump seemed clearly on the defensive, and a bit off game IMHO. Secretariat gave a good account of herself, again, and it pains me to say it. The moderators tried to get a good cage match going, but with a field of 10 competing for time, nobody could really land anything decisive.

About 20 minutes past the introductions, I turned on PBS and started simal-watching bird mating rituals. A male sage grouse can fight off a rival, do a display and consummate with a female in just one minute! Pretty similar to what I was watching on the tablet, but PBS knows edit!

Rather than listen to my beverages yelling from the kitchen, I just put a large bottle of wine on the coffee table and a couple of glasses. That worked well.

"nobody really stood out as a huge winner tonight"

Quite so, but there were more than enough wieners waiting for that jet to take off.

Returning to the main event, I began to realize I really needed to view this again with the benefit of fast forward and it's even twin fast backward. None of this exchange was news...and watching fossils getting excavated from a cave in South Africa was much better paced than the fossils I was watching on CNN.

At least 5 of the main card candidates need to go home RIGHT NOW. How many spare tires does the bus need?

Harley, you are making noise but gaining no traction

Unit One, that's one more unit than we need

Trueheart, get more and different exercise

Duckhunter, your waders are leaking

Cohiba, where did that come from? Just go

Undercard: Your moniker says it all. Get on with your lives.

Oh, forgot to mention that Eveready still came across as woefully undercharged.

There you have it. Trying, honestly trying, to watch this event has reduced me to pure snark.