Christie’s facial expression for most of the debate about summed up my feelings. He doesn’t look like he wants to be at these debates. I don’t really want to watch them. Apart from the fact that continuing to do them sans Trump, and having DeSantis deliver “pretty good” performances, will inch DeSantis up in Iowa and Trump down, I’m struggling to see the point. It looks like Christie is, too. I feel his pain. …

In general, all of these people need to understand what Kellyanne Conway said before the debate. Voters are not looking to hear your ten point plan for whatever intricate policy fix. They want to feel they get to know you as a person, and that you’re like them on some level. Yes, for us political dorks (and all the politicians, except perhaps Trump and Vivek and Marianne Williamson are political dorks), the details matter a great deal. To everyone else, this is just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that makes you sound like, well, a dork. And they all did a ton of it last night. …

Final note: Make sure you check out a little of Gavin Newsom’s Biden surrogacy last night. I’m pretty well convinced he, not Biden, will be on the 2024 ballot. Start getting familiar.