There were 4 things I, personally, took away from the GOP debates yesterday.
1. Carly Fiorina may end up with a fairly responsible position should a Republican take office in 2016.
2. The whittling down process is going to be fun to watch, but only slightly less fun than listening to liberals and Democrats whine about these debates and how painful/annoying/useless/ugly/stupid/hateful/horrible and blah blah blah they are and how they yet somehow, still, can’t look away. All the feels for you. Really.
3. No one really cares about Trump and Trump really cares about no one.
4. The policy discussions will slowly emerge and the first one out of the gate (for me anyway) is Dodd-Frank, thanks to Marco Rubio.
Rather hilariously, Blake Hounshell of Politico wondered this aloud just after Rubio called for the repeal and replace of Dodd-Frank:
When did saying that Dodd-Frank was bad for small businesses become a thing?
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) August 7, 2015
Well, I don’t know about Hounshell, but I had certainly heard it before. Here’s a bit from a US News & World Report piece back in January 2013: