There was even some news broken in the debate: Trump admitted that his proposed 45 percent tariffs are only a threat and not meant to be implemented. He suddenly reversed his stance on Syria and ISIS as being not an American problem by saying that “we have to knock them out fast” and that “I’m hearing numbers of 20,000 to 30,000” American ground troops will be needed. Also, he described the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square as a “riot.”

And in response to this—and scores of other outright falsehoods from Trump—Cruz and Rubio had no sharp criticisms. They were above the fray and unwilling to get dragged into the mud and whatever other metaphor you’d like to use. And maybe voters will really respect and support that.

Another interpretation is that it looked like capitulation. And if treating Trump like a normal political actor didn’t work for the first eight months of the campaign, it’s unlikely to start working now.