A quick take on last night's debate

I'll keep this brief, for a number of reasons: the cringe-worthy nature of the event, the tiresome, mind-numbing task of parsing the minutiae of the moment, the obviousness of much of what's going on. Still, a few basic things need to be said:

It's time for Carson and Kasich to drop out.

Jeb's running out of chances to prove any sort of viability.

Rubio had an impressive comeback from his unfortunate performance at the New Hampshire debate. That said, he really ought to leave the accusations of lying to the one who lobs them most effectively.

Ted was his usual forceful, principled self - both when playing offense and defense.

And Squirrel-Hair, unsurprisingly, took the occasion to once again prove himself as horrifying a possibility for the presidency as Sanders or Hillionaire. From his it-would-be-okay-for-Planned-Parenthood-to-receive-government-funding-if-it-would-stop-performing-abortions stance (as if PP is going to abandon its organizational raison d'être) to his Code Pink-worthy lie about the W administration knowing for certain Iraq had no WMDs when it invaded (a complete ignoring of the assessments of intelligence agencies around the world, as well as the pronouncements of several prominent Democrats going back to the late 1990s) to his quintessentially sloppy, generalizing-in-the-extreme closing "politicians-are-all-talk-and-no-action"" statement (a stark contrast, coming as it did after our having heard several well-articulated summations of what a dire moment this is for America), he was abysmal.

And what was with the rowdiness of the audience? Is that a South Carolina thing, or were various factions coached and exhorted beforehand?

Reason number gazillion and seventeen why Jeb is a bad, wrong, horrible Pub prez candidate

Cleanup mode after a top advisor shoots off his mouth at an ill-advised appearance:

Jeb Bush is cleaning up a mess he helped create. It’s a distraction from what he’d rather be doing, which is building an “aura of inevitability” around his soon-to-be presidential campaign. He’s spent the past week distancing himself from the speech that one of his foreign policy advisers, former secretary of State James Baker, delivered to the annual meeting of J Street, the liberal fringe group that pushes tough policies against Israel.

Baker’s speech couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Obama administration is in the midst of a campaign to demonize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, greeted Netanyahu’s election victory with abuse and threats to abandon Israel to the anti-Semites at the U.N., and is hurtling toward a flawed nuclear agreement with Iran. Having a former high-ranking Republican official tell moldy anecdotes and agree that Israel is responsible for the standstill in the peace process only legitimized J Street and suggested a division in GOP ranks when there isn’t any. The speech risked confirming the suspicions of conservatives and Republicans that Bush isn’t really one of them. Two advisers to national political figures appeared at the J Street conference: White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and James Baker. Surely this White House is company the Bush crew doesn’t want to keep.

Baker's foreign policy orientation has always been goofy and worthless.  Clearly, Jeb is not astute enough to conclude as much and seek guidance from more serious and less prejudiced sources.