I’m going to try to avoid talking about winners and losers. See if I succeed.

1. I thought the Republicans could have been more prudent about abortion. That doesn’t mean they should have come out in favor of abortion in any particular instance, but they should have tried to focus the debate on where they are strongest and the Democrats are weakest. Lincoln should be the guide here. He never came out in favor of slavery anywhere, but he stuck to those issues that were pressing and where public opinion was on his side. Why is it so hard to say something along the lines of:

I never want to stop a beating heart, and even murders get due process, but no one is going to ban abortion when the mother’s life is in danger and everyone knows that. Can’t we agree to end the at-will destruction of human beings that we know feel pain? Can we stop subsidizing it? Can we agree that delivering most of a baby’s body and then destroying her brain is something that should be stopped? Can we agree that children who are born prematurely should protected and treated, and that personnel who allow those children to die should face prosecution from the government rather than getting protection from extremist politicians?

2. There is quite a bit of history of pro wrestlers running for public office (especially in Japan), but this is the first time I’ve seen someone this prominent run for office as a pro wrestling heel. Pro wrestler Jesse Ventura ran for governor, but he did so as a goo-goo reformer. Trump is running as a more vulgar version of Ventura’s 1980s heel persona. It is fascinating in a “Are we really this decadent?” sort of way. But Trump’s candidacy isn’t built to last.

3. There was very little talk about positive health care reform. This is an enormously important issue where Republicans have long underinvested. The measure of a candidate’s seriousness isn’t how growly they sound when they talk about repealing Obamacare. It is how persuasive they sound when they explain how the market-oriented replacement for Obamacare won’t leave people out in the cold.

4. Kasich was interesting. He didn’t sound like a liberal Republican who despised his party’s voters. He sounded like Gerald Ford Republican who is right-leaning but not-at-all ideological. I don’t think it gets him the nomination and I don’t think it will wear well when and if the other candidates decides he is a threat that needs to be taken down – but it is interesting.

5. Bush was just another guy. He is more authentically conservative than Romney, but he is out of practice and faces stronger competition. Bush is the first choice of the largest fraction of the donor class, but I think that the median Republican wants to vote for Rubio or Walker. If Bush can utterly destroy Rubio and Walker the way that Romney destroyed Perry, that isn’t a problem. If Walker or Rubio survive as credible candidate and get Bush in a two-way race, I don’t know that all the super PAC adds in the world will save Bush.

6. Huckabee is such a waste of talent.