I'm sure Flavius would describe Nate Silver as a partisan left wing hack, but I have found 538's analysis of polling etc to be fairly consistent and accurate.

I had no idea that Clinton had that many endorsements already. Looks like far too many democrats lumped in with her very early in the process.

If it is as accurate as it has been in the past, then Rubio has a decent chance. He's one of the few contenders that doesn't creep me out on a personal level (including Clinton) rather than political.

So it looks like Ted Cruz may have revealed classified information in last night's debate.

Did Ted Cruz release classified info in last night's debate? | PBS NewsHour

Get the chicken grease ready! Looks like Trey Gowdy has work to do.

Last night's debate was pretty embarrassing, even for me, and I'm not a USC.

The entire presumption was that Obama's administration has rendered the single worst results on the planet.

yet...

• Despite claims of some candidates, the American economy still leads the world - Still #1, and far better than most of the rest of the world. Growing, and to the point where it's time to raise interest rates for fear of growing too fast. Europe could learn a few lessons...
• Despite claims of some candidates, American diplomacy in the past 8 years has led to more positive results than the previous 8 years.Not ideal, but certainly more productive than the previous administration.
• Despite claims of some candidates, and notwithstanding domestic gun violence, America is statistically still far safer from "terrorism" than the bulk of the rest of the world.
• In the view of the "rest of the world" (notwithstanding the outrageous narratives of certain republican candidates), American credibility has increased significantly in the past 8 years.

Am I the only one who sees the irony here?

The level of reasoning of the average American voter is definitely not at college level, probably middle school or below - it's a race to the intellectual bottom, on both sides. Of course, that's what you get with universal suffrage - and we all want that, don't we? Well...don't we?

One thing is for sure: whoever wins, we won't be governed by one of Plato's philosopher kings, or a modern day Marcus Aurelius.

I always got taught to use the lowest common denominator at school. I have learnt in life that generally everything tends towards the lowest common denominator. This is why the "every child kept behind" program has been such a success for politicians.

It would be difficult to convince me that Lindsey Graham isn't pissed out of his head 95% of the time.

This is not a negative in my estimation.

I forced myself to watch the Romper Room debate and I agree with you that Graham's presentation was the most appalling I've yet seen in these debates. I fail to understand how the voters of South Carolina could have returned him to the Senate in 2014. He just doesn't even seem like their kind of 'good ole boy.'

Of course, South Carolina, with an Indian (East) female governor and a black Senator, changes must have come to the Palmetto State.

I find Graham to be one of the most entertaining of the entire bunch. He does verge on being a boozy lounge act but he's so much better than the rest of the Romper Room debaters.

I recorded most of the debates and am now watching. I've just finished the first one. It's the way to go, fast forward through all of the BS and commercials.

They met Trump at his limo like this is the Academy ****ing Awards.

I watched both debates, then watched the Fox News and CNN takes on the debates until 2:00 AM. Got four hours of sleep as a result. Had a 5:30 pm echo cardiogram scheduled but fell asleep watching the 4:30 news and almost missed it. It's not easy being a news junkie.

You're covering the debates the right way. Looking forward to your take on who won the debate, Cruz, Rubio or Christie. Fox, by the way, trumpeted that they caught Cruz in a misstatement of his position on legalizing illegals (via Yahoo fact-checking). He also looks vulnerable on national security.

Did Graham remind us 3 times, or was it 4, that he had gone to the Middle East 36 times? He's only in the race to make some points about his ME policy, not to win the candidacy.

I agree wholeheartedly!

Obama is in fact a relatively middle-of-the-road Democrat, not the left-wing monster the Republicans try to paint him.

As you folks are politically in tune, just thought I would elicit some opinions on Edward Snowden. I know it's a bit of an old story, but only got round to watching "Citizen Four" last night, and I'm undecided on whether his whistleblowing was a good thing or not? It certainly seems to have been hushed up fairly well in the last several months.

To not completely go on a tangent, in the GOP debate there was some discussion on snooping and metatdata, etc? I'm in the UK so not as au fait with US politics as I would like to be, but like FA above, a bit of a news junkie.

On balance Snowden did a service in my view, although it was not his brief to perform it.

Governor Chris Christie was asked by a moderator if a no fly zone was imposed over Syria and a Russian fighter aircraft intruded into that air space would he or would he not shoot down that plane.

His answer was that he would shoot down that plane and any other Russian plane with entered that air space

A typical republican with an itchy trigger finger. As if we hadn't had enough with Bush Junior and his unwarranted invasion of Iraq which has now resulted in the appearance of iSIS.

What did Christie imagine Putin would do if such an incident occurred? We should stand up to Putin when and where necessary but placing the man in a tight corner where his personal reputation and position are at stake could only lead to a major confrontation if not an all out war

Christie for one has no place in the White House. Recklesness isn't part of the job requirement

I'm sure that I suffer with extreme confirmation bias so I'm not sure how reliable I am ... but hey ho, that's what discussion forums are for.

Graham has been pushing his pro-military, pro-bombing everybody, hawkish position from day one. He's just ramping it up more now that the Paris and San Bernadino attacks have everybody shitting their pants. Honestly, other than Hillary, he's the only one that really has any bragging rights in that sphere. IMO, Graham won the undercard debate. He's a perfect example of somebody with nothing to lose who is actually telling the truth. It is refreshing. Santorum is as mental as ever. Huckabee is as inappropriate and unfunny as ever. I don't even know what Pataki is doing there. Weirdo.

On the big stage, I don't know if anybody won. It felt very much like more maintaining of the status quo until after the holidays.

Cruz is as slimy and snaky as anybody I've ever seen, it really is fun watching him try to out fox Donald Trump ... like nobody will ever know what he's doing? Then watching Trump pretending he doesn't know what Cruz is doing ... hilarious. Cruz may have got himself in some trouble with some of the things he was saying in his exchange with Rubio about immigration. We shall see.

Jeb probably didn't go up in the polls but at least he got under Trump's skin a little. I think it's the better way really, if he has to lose then he should at least do it with some chutzpah. Trump is a jerk --- it needs to be said frequently and loudly.

Chris Christie didn't sound good calling Obama a feckless weakling, I thought it was crass, but it probably went over well with the base.