I'd like to take a sober look today at where we could very well be a year from now. One year from yesterday, our next president will be sworn into office. There are two Democrats with a solid shot at reciting that oath. The question for either of them would then become how much they can actually get done with Congress. But I think both Bernie Sanders supporters and Hillary Clinton fans are guilty of glossing over a fundamental problem either one of them will have to face. Because in almost every scenario (excepting the rosiest that can be imagined), Republicans will likely still control at least one chamber of Congress next January.

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Yesterday, Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for president. "Of course she did," was the most common reaction to this news -- heard from both left and right. It is not only the most natural progression, but in fact it completes a circle of sorts. Because Palin really was the original Trump, in the world of Republican politics. Which is why I blame John McCain more than anyone else for the fact that Donald Trump is the clear frontrunner of the Republican pack right now. McCain's pick of Palin as running mate truly set the stage for where the GOP finds itself now.

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Sylvester Stallone just got an Oscar nomination for his new movie Creed, which I mention purely as an introduction for a rather unusual column, because it's not that often I write about sports. Politics, of course, borrows tons of metaphors from the sporting world, but that's about the extent of my usual commentary on the subject. Also, I'd like to make it clear from the beginning that it's impossible for me to either praise or pan the new Rocky movie, since I have not yet seen it. I probably won't see it -- I think the last Rocky movie I paid money to see was the second one. So this is not a personal attack on either Sly or his movie.

Having said all of that, I've been thinking about commenting on boxing for a while now. Mostly because of the subject of another movie that just came out -- Concussion. This film (again, which I have not yet seen) chronicles the attempt by one doctor to diagnose a major medical crisis in the world of football. Football players' brains are subject to a lot of abuse, which results in them deteriorating in ways normally seen only in the elderly. The subject has been a hot one in the world of sports and in the NFL in particular. Football has even changed many of its rules in an attempt to alleviate the problem somewhat. There's a big argument over whether these changes go far enough, but I leave that debate for others more knowledgeable about what is going on.

Instead, my reaction to the debate over football and concussions is a simple one: Why does boxing get a free pass? Even soccer is now telling young players to avoid "heading" the ball too much, and yet the sport where inflicting brain damage is one of the ways to victory gets an absolute free pass.

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So we had the fourth Democratic debate last night, and I suppose we should all be thankful that Debbie Wasserman Schultz didn't somehow manage to schedule it to compete with one of football's playoff games. I wouldn't be surprised if the debate had a pretty low viewership, appearing as it did on a Sunday night during a three-day weekend, but those who did manage to catch it saw a much more high-spirited contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton than we've previously seen.

I'm not a big fan of declaring who "won" and "lost" debates, and I actually thought both candidates furthered their cause with a particular emphasis towards appealing to South Carolina and minority voters. That was one bar for the debate, and both candidates cleared it pretty easily. Oh, I should insert the obligatory mention that Martin O'Malley was also on the stage, even though he has no chance whatsoever of winning. Below are my debate reactions, complete with advice to both viable candidates on how to improve their performance for the next time around.

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In every 1950s "gang rumble" genre film, there comes a point where the fighting gets more serious. This is, literally, where the knives come out. I begin with this image because, metaphorically, that's exactly where we are in the 2016 presidential campaign. The fight's getting a lot more serious, and there is bound to be some blood on the floor afterwards.

This was prominent last night, as the Republican candidates put on their most vicious debate yet. There were almost too many head-to-head tussles to count. Ben Carson and John Kasich were the only ones not scarred by the infighting, but then neither of them has a prayer of winning the nomination, so it's easy to understand why they were ignored. The rest of the field went at each other harder than we've yet seen this cycle, which certainly had some entertaining moments for Democrats who watched.

The Democratic race is also heating up, though. With less than three weeks to go before Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both dialed up their own attacks, meaning the debate that will happen this weekend (I think it's on at something like 2:00 Sunday morning -- thanks, Debbie Wasserman Schultz!) could become just as contentious as last night's Republican slugfest.

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The sixth Republican debate will happen tonight, for those keeping score. Technically, though, that should read "debates," as there will be two debates airing this evening, as there have been in the previous five GOP matchups. Which really begs the question of how long we're going to even bother holding double debates, when the contest has quite obviously narrowed to include only viable candidates. At some point, the secondary debate is going to be seen as so pointless (and so devoid of an actual viewing audience) that it will be eliminated altogether. Hopefully, at any rate. After having watched most of these, for me that time could easily be now -- but then again, I'm not a television executive.

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Every so often, I write what I call a "blue-sky" article, just for fun. This is where you sit back in your chair, allow your eyes to unfocus, and ponder a far-fetched "What if...?" scenario, because you've got nothing better to write about that particular day. And I'll fully admit it -- the more outlandish a proposition you begin with, the more fun such an article is to write. Very occasionally, though, one of these scenarios actually becomes reality. This, of course, allows you to bask in the special pundit's glow of looking downright prescient. Much more commonly, though, the far-fetched remains unreal and never comes to pass, and the outlandish article you wrote predicting it remains (hopefully) forgotten. This is all just an introduction to me revisiting one of those columns, which I wrote last August. It was cheekily titled: "Sanders Versus Trump Would Be Fun."

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Tonight, Barack Obama gave his final State Of The Union speech, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley gave the Republican response. Both speeches were unusual -- not in a negative way, but in a more literal "not the usual thing" sense. Obama's speech was not a laundry list of legislative agenda items, but rather a definitional moment for Obama and for the Democratic Party platform. Haley's speech was not a vitriol-filled rejection of all things Democratic while glossing over her own party's faults. The speeches, or at least the general tone of them, were actually more similar than different (again, not on policy but rather on tone).

I'll get to some snap reactions to Obama's speech in a moment, but what struck me the most about both speeches was the biggest thing Haley and Obama agreed upon: Donald Trump is not where American politics should be headed. We saw a denunciation not of Trump by name (neither uttered it) but a sweeping condemnation of stoking the angers and fears of what might be called "Trumpism." Both Haley and Obama used the same basic theme, in fact, which might be summed up as: "Shouting at each other is bad for American politics."

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Hillary Clinton is not the inevitable Democratic presidential nominee. Clinton was not the inevitable nominee in 2008, and she is not inevitable in 2016 either. Of course, this really isn't new or surprising, because nothing in politics is ever inevitable, really. Elections are always about as "evitable" as one can imagine.

The reason I'm starting this article out with such a basic truth is that two new polls appeared this weekend that said pretty much what a bunch of other polls have been saying for a while now. The pundit world, as a result, finally woke up to the reality that Bernie Sanders is not some sort of gadfly candidate. Sanders, the polls show, has a solid chance at winning New Hampshire and at least a decent chance of winning Iowa. If Clinton were to lose both states then the Democratic race's dynamics would shift in a major way.

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That sub-headline may take the prize for the most bizarre we've ever offered up, although it'd have to beat the current champion -- which is, of course: "The Corpse-Like Stench Of Washington's Giant Misshapen Penis." That's pretty tough to beat, if truth be told.

In other words, welcome back to "Friday Talking Points," everyone! And a happy 2016 to one and all! Before we get to the Underpants Gnomes, we'd like to point out that this column has been on hiatus for the past three weeks, as we enjoyed our holidays and as we also got pre-empted by our annual "best and worst year-end roundup" column series (Part 1 and Part 2, in case you missed them). With three weeks of news to make up for, we're not even going to try highlighting all the political idiocy for the entire period, instead we'll just focus on the post-New-Year's-hangover period instead. That'll have to do.

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