Electability, the worst opening question.
Ah, the traditional request to keep applause to a minimum, a request that is always ignored.
Idle pre-debate thought: At this point, I think people are underestimating the likelihood that DeSantis will win Iowa and be able to capitalize on that win elsewhere.
At no point since Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley trained their fire on one another have either come out on the other end of one of those exchanges looking better for it. The dilemma of their dynamic all but ensures that they will continue to try to neutralize the other as a viable candidate for, at the very least, a plurality of Republican primary voters. But so far, that experiment has not yielded satisfying results. We can nevertheless expected both candidates to keep at it.
Tonight’s debate, in addition to being carried by the cable channel NewsNation, will also be televised live in the Eastern and Central time zones by the CW. Because the CW network is mostly known for teen dramas and soaps and DC-Comics based superheroes, I was hoping the moderators would be Veronica from Riverdale, some teen vampire, and the Green Arrow. “Governor, how do respond to charges that your policies and you have failed this city?!”