Second Republican Debate. Carson and Trump losers. Fiorina and Rubio rise.

  CNN reports that last night’s “debate” set a network all-time record for viewers. At the actual and figurative center of the platform was Donald Trump, flanked by Ben Carson and Jeb Bush, so “featured”as a reflection of their polling numbers. Donald, as usual, got the most attention–good and bad. I am tempted to say that through his performance tonight, he should be very close to peaking out and shall soon see his numbers start dropping. But I’ve misjudged Trump’s popularity with a certain segment of the population before, and so am cautious before pronouncing him history. Yet any way that I look at last night’s performance, I saw him on the defensive, blustering foolishly. He may have gotten away with gratuitously insulting other women, who weren’t present to respond to his bombastic insults, but not last night. He apparently suffered no immediate polling punishment when, earlier, in an interview he said of Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that as the face of our next president?” I’m...

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