2/3 rds of the electorate is still busy doing other things right now. The political addicts and extremists are making all kinds of projections and assumptions and calling them fact, based on these low volume debates. But in the real world, the true picture will emerge and shock a lot of people here who believe that the rest of the world thinks like they do.
I can predict only one sure thing, which will be sometime in the middle of October next year, as well as who the nominee will be by July.
As far as who won the debates tonight or any of the previous nights? I would say that nobody won, since the agenda that will pick our next candidate for us, will have very little to do with who can BS better than all the others.
Yup. Pretty much why I still think it comes down to Romney and Perry. They can raise big money from the big donors, the others probably won't be able to compete. The people with the big bucks want to back a winner, and they will go with the safest options which are probably Mitt and Rick.
Still, much as I have my doubts about Cain being able to seriously compete, he really does come off as a true happy warrior. He is very likable, and while I don't support 999 because of the consumption tax, I do like that Herman is willing to put big things on the table.
I agree with you that 2/3rds of the electorate isn't paying attention, but I think you diminish the impact of these debates. Just look at Perry. He entered the race and was dominating the polls and it was looking like it was his race too lose. Perry then goes on to several miserable debate performances and his stupid "heartless" comment and he is almost down to single digit territory. While I think he can come back, and tonight was a good start, the debates do really matter because of the significant amount of coverage they get for days and weeks after the fact.