CNN Undercard Republican Debate: Live Coverage

The undercard debate is over. The main stage debate is about to begin. Move on over to our main stage Republican debate live blog (please).

I’ve seen a lot of glib comments about this undercard debate, in our comments section, on Twitter and elsewhere. The glibness, in my opinion, is a manifestation of two facts: This campaign is about to go into overdrive after the Christmas/New Year’s break, and these four candidates, combined, are earning less than 5 percent. It’s unlikely that anything in tonight’s undercard changed that. Outside of Huckabee or Santorum winning back born-again/evangelical Iowans they won in 2008 and 2012 respectively, none of these candidates stands much of a chance to be any sort of player in this presidential race for much longer.