I spent way too much time deciding which version of Sparks Will Fly to use for this post. The alternative choice was Oakland, 1994:

Here's a thread for tonight's debate.

Update: Barbara Bush looked the same as always. George Bush, Sr looked very scary. Did he have a stroke? I don't remember reading that. This isn't a criticism, I was just taken aback. Maybe it was just the contrast between his head and body on the one hand and his expression, which seemed quite alert and present, on the other. Sad.

Wolf Blitzer is moderating -- also on deck is a blogger/radio host named Hugh Hewitt, who is presented as a former Reagan official for six years. I'm sure he was, but that sure was a long time ago.

Donald Trump looks like a turtle from the side.

Marco Rubio came out attacking Trump for charging $38k for Trump University tuition for a phony degree and a photo op with a cardboard cutout of Trump, and for hiring undocumented polish workers.

Ted Cruz made an interesting point, that people assume Hispanics are liberal. He and Rubio are both of Cuban descent. Cuban Americans have historically leaned Republican, but that may be changing somewhat.

Trump made Cruz out to be a loner that couldn't work with Republicans in Congress. He basically agreed.

The Telemundo debate questioner said a new Telemundo poll show 3 of 4 Hispanics don't like him. He said doesn't believe anything Telemundo says. He insists Hispanics love him. He says he's going to bring in Democrats and Independents to the Republican party, and that he is building a new bigger and stronger Republican party. She tells him it's not just Telemundo, the Washington Post poll says 80% of Hispanics have a negative view of him.

Trump makes sure to mention he and Univision settled their lawsuit and they're all very happy. Univision is now "good people."

Ted Cruz will nominate justices who uphold the Bill of Rights. Does he know there's more to the Bill of Rights than the First and Second Amendments? The Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of the citizen accused. Religious liberty is a small portion of it.

Marco Rubio says we need an originalist like Scalia. He says the Constitution is not a living, breathing document. (How original of him.)

Trump says Planned Parenthood has helped million of women, but he would defund it because of the abortion issue.

Ben Carson just answered a question. I forgot he was even in the debate, he's been so quiet.

I think CNN asked questions based on the candidates' poll numbers. Trump and Rubio got the most questions. Then Cruz. Kasich got much fewer and Carson got almost none.

Trump says he's self-funding his campaign. Trump made very little sense on health care. Dana Bash called him on it. Rubio kept asking him where's his plan? He only talks about removing "lines around the states?" which will result in competition and "that will be a beautiful thing." Rubio attacks him for repeating himself. The audience loved it, I'm not sure why. Trump then got testy with Dana Bash and I heard audible boos in the audience. John Kasich is the only one who sounded like he knew what he was talking about (I don't know enough about to know if his plan was good, I'm just saying he sounds knowledgeable on the topic.

Carson: Health care is not a right. Pretty amazing, coming from a physician. He didn't make sense to me -- again, I'm just talking about whether I understood him, not whether he's right or wrong.

Cruz will repeal every word of Obama Care. Trump actually agreed with Cruz. Cruz then accused Trump of supporting Government paid for health care for everyone. Trump denies that but says will not let people die on the sidewalks if he's President. That's not the same as saying the Government will provide health care to everyone.

Kasich is back to "I've done it in Ohio." Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, enough already. You're running for President, not Governor. I tune out every time he says "Ohio" just like with Martin O'Malley who kept repeating "Maryland."

Trump gets nasty with Hugh Hewitt, complaining that Hewitt's questions are all directed to him. He tells him his radio show has lousy ratings. That was really unnecessary and to Hewitt's credit, he didn't respond.

Trump says he hasn't released his tax return because he's audited every year and he's under audit now. He says you can learn more from his hundred page financial disclosure statement.

Rubio says he's not being audited this year and wasn't last year. Cruz says Trump will lose to Hillary in November.

This debate isn't really sparks flying, it's candidates sniping at each other. Cruz just picked up the Trump University lawsuit. Trump then responds with insults to Cruz. He adds for the fifth or sixth time (Rubio is right, he repeats himself) that he's being audited for the 12th year. He says it's because his company is very large. He repeats his company is very large. He has a very large company.

This debate is taking forever. Wolf just said they're going to take a break and have many more issues to cover. Really? How is that possible? I'm bored by these Republican clowns (and by Kasich, who's not a clown, but stuck in Ohio) and done with this debate.

Not quite done. After them all claiming to be Israel's BFF, Kasich showed off his knowledge on North Korea. Carson then played the underdog card, saying he didn't get asked about taxes or Israel. Wolf told him to go ahead and talk now. He told a story about being unfairly audited. He said he's an honest person but the IRS is not honest and needs to be abolished. People clapped. I felt a little sorry for him because he was right, he has been ignored. He's such a mild-mannered guy. He asks, "Could somebody attack me please?" I laughed out loud. (Sorry Ben, you seem very nice, but there's nothing presidential about you.)

Trump says we'd be better off now if Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi were still in charge. He then calls Rubio a "choke artist" and Cruz a "liar."

Rubio doesn't understand the Apple issue. He's also wrong when he says it's only one phone (See my post here about the motion Apple filed the other day in the Eastern District of New York.) Kasich says it's Obama's fault because he didn't personally hold meetings with Apple to hammer out an agreement. (Kasich of course adds that's what he did as Governor.) That might be the silliest thing he said all night.

It's finally over. Shorter version: The scariest, looniest and most dangerous candidate is Ted Cruz. The most under-qualified is Mark Rubio. I'm not sure why Ben Carson is in the race. Trump is in love with Trump and the Trump brand, not America. Kasich is the only one who wouldn't be a disaster, and could be effective in November, but he's not exciting enough to get out the vote and he needs to stop talking about Ohio.

Trump was interviewed after the debate. He tore into Rubio as "pouring down sweat" a few times and said someone who sweats so much shouldn't be President, the President might have meet with the leader of North Korea and can't be seen sweating like that. He called Rubio a "choke artist" again. He denied repeating himself. He said the debate wasn't fair to Carson and Kasich, they didn't get enough questions, and they should have because they made it to the final five. He mentions he went to very good colleges and got very good grades. He touts his Christianity.

Everyone should hope Kasich, the only non- extremist, non-blowhard running, resists calls to drop out of the race. I think Carson and Cruz will be the next two to go.