Normally, in the final presidential debate immediately before the first primary contest, candidates line up to take shots at the frontrunner. Well, that guy isn’t on the stage tonight. So at the start of tonight’s event, who are these Republican master debaters targeting? In brief:
Cruz: Trump, in absentia; people who don’t like his Trump jokes; people who think foreign policy is not a video game.
Rubio: President Obama; voters who hate stump speeches as answers; the U.S. military he thinks is decimated.
Bush: Not Trump, because he misses him; anyone who previously liked teddy bears.
Christie: President Obama, and also wimps.
Paul: EVERYONE, starting with Ted Cruz.
Kasich: The “dividers.”
Carson: All you haters out there; people who want actual politicians to be president.