One thing we didn’t hear much about tonight, at least directly? The middle class. Politicians of both parties usually love to talk about the middle class and, lately, its struggles. But the Republican candidates tonight seemed to spend more time talking about poverty — and how the number of poor has risen under Obama — than the middle class. According to a preliminary transcript of the debate, “poverty” and “poor” got 11 references tonight; the middle class just seven. (Jeb Bush got both terms into his closing remarks.)
