CNN Undercard Republican Debate: Live Coverage

Farai, I think this debate’s merit in some ways is the amount that the candidates are hammering away on Syria, the ground troops question, etc. They’re digging into it in a non-soundbite way, I think (at least by debate standards). So, it’s a food for thought hour and change, maybe something for the Big Debate moderators to question the real candidates with.

So, just to get meta for a second, following Carl … what does this debate do, FiveThirtyEight team, and for whom? Will this be the last undercard? Thinking of:

To follow up on the question Harry answered before: Based on the formula we use in our Senate forecasts, Cruz’s strongly conservative views would cost the Republicans a net of about 5 percentage points relative to a more moderate, Mitt Romney-esque Republican. That’s a pretty big deal, but not so much that Cruz couldn’t overcome it if national conditions were really poor for Democrats.