herman cane, michele bachmann in 2012, and carson in 2016. they flame out before the vote ing begins. when ramaswamy making attention for himself, and sweeping of his rivals being bought and paid for, he left a smaller figure than he came on to the stage and probably reaffirmed the limits of how far he is able to go. interesting. i would have thought maybe he might have distinguished himself with all of that political bomb-throwing. we ll see whether he did. he did. but i think in a way, that also reinforces you can only go so far, i think, with that kind of messaging. right. trump loomed large, even in his absence. for the most part, the candidates avoided talking about the 40-point elephant not in the room, as the moderator said. was he really the big winner here? yeah. yeah. in the context of the republican