With only six candidates on the stage, voters finally had an opportunity to hear each contender speak about many issues—Iran, North Korea, health care, child care, education, climate change, to name just a handful. They also saw candidates spar over whether millionaires’ kids should have to pay for public college, U.S. troops should remain in the Middle East or a female candidate could defeat Donald Trump. Given the wide-ranging ground the candidates covered and the fact that there’s no clear frontrunner in Iowa, we might be tempted to conclude that Tuesday night’s debate really mattered. But it probably didn’t, for three basic reasons.
Jennifer Lawless
