This should be fun. Without Trump there to be the worst, the less flashy grossness of all of the other candidates should be even more evident.

When I'm nostalgic for the old skool liveslogging it makes me feel so old.

Who is the asking-guy that looks like a Stay-Puft Seth MacFarlane? Is he literally a softball coach?

@1: I misread that as "less fleshy grossness", and then spent too long thinking about the various candidates and their fleshy grossness.

I think that for the next debate each candidate should have their home state's Miss America contestant represent them and see if we can get more coherent answers.

Well, for once, the Jews win. We give to charity even though we don't believe there's a Hell. Except on earth, if a Republican wins.

You spelled "magickally" wrong.

It's astonishing to me that anyone pays this guy to write about politics. There's just nothing here.

Wait, the stranger doesn't give their employees health care??!? Or is it that the stranger employs mostly "independent contractors" to avoid paying for health care!!!??!?!

El Estraño doesn't pay well at best and at all at worst, that's why all the people who did good enough work to really get paid left. Possibly Paul just imploded under the pressure of his own white knightitude approaching white dwarf density.

Damn! Missed it. I was in a class tonight. At break, the instructor joked, "Isn't the debate on right now? Should we stream it?"
A classmate shot back, "We're here to get smarter, not dumber." There is hope for the future.

@9: Take your pick, for all its talk about worker's rights, The Stranger treats its employees like shit, which is why anyone who can get a job writing somewhere else has already done so. The Stranger is like a farm league.

@11: The Stranger has hired writers in the past, and has some on staff at present, who could take this assignment and make it occasionally insightful and consistently clever. That's well beyond Baume's capabilities.

@9: That caught my attention as well. Maybe Baume is a part-timer or a freelancer? I hope it means the powers that be aren't committed to keeping him on. This paper can do so much better.

And what exactly is a political writer supposed to write about this idiotic charade? These despicable people have no real policies and no real proposals to solve any of our nation's very critical problems.

It's a farce, a sick joke. More bread and circuses for hateful, mouth-breathing morons.

I've really enjoyed Matt's coverage. Sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh at the absurdity of it all. Try Politico if you want to read some totally fictional bullshit about how any of this is supposed to make sense.

Matt's posted almost every day, so if he doesn't have health care from the stranger then the stranger a horrible employer

I enjoy Matt's posts. Comments like these are why half the Stranger's online articles don't allow comments any more. You meanies are why we can't have nice things.

@17, 19,

+1, (or 2 maybe?) People are always lamenting what was. Matt's style seems almost identical to Paul in nearly every respect. I'd bet they could've subbed him in under Paul's name/profile and no one would've ever been the wiser. Drip's call for a critique/analysis of the GOP debates in the Stranger without snark are just bizarre & inane.

@21,

No, we wanted single payer. The ACA was a significantly lesser proposal and frustrating compromise, albeit still a significant improvement over the status quo.

Insurance plans under Obamacare come in four basic levels of coverage: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

Bronze plans are cheap but cover the bare minimum. You should expect higher out of pocket expenses with these plans.

You can get premium assistance under Obamacare if you make up to 252% of the federal poverty level which would be $29,660. This equates to $14.26 per hour.

$14.26 will be below the Seattle minimum wage as of January 2017. So people making minimum wage in Seattle will get no help from Obamacare with their health care costs from 2017 on.

Go Bernie!

A fox-man petting video _and_ a reference to the Tony the Tiger twitter scandal? I approve of this new outreach to furries that the Slog has taken. More weird shit, please!

Best blog of a debate by Republicans ever!