For once, the early speculation about what could happen at the Democrats' first debate was right. Donald Trump? Mentioned a mere 20 times over two hours. Joe Biden? Not mentioned at all. Candidates polling at 1 percent or lower? They went right after the candidates who'd been getting more buzz, often with results.

Other people have their winners and losers lists; this debate fit fairly nicely into an ordinal ranking of who did best and … least best. WP