At the third Democratic debate on Thursday, a few moments stood out: Julian Castro's dig at Joe Biden's memory, which may have been factually incorrect but got a reaction you'd expect more from a comedy roast than a political debate; Andrew Yang's joke about knowing a lot of doctors because he's Asian (as well as his very touching story about being the son of an immigrant); and hecklers interrupting Biden with chants that were so unintelligible that they might as well have been saying, "Give Joe More Time to Think!"

There were a few more substantive moments (the healthcare portion of the evening was instructive, and everyone's solution is better than what we have now) but, as with all these debates, I spent most of the three hours wondering why the fuck some of these people are running for President. The field is narrowing, thank god, but there were still 10 people on stage and twice as many Democrats still campaigning, and most of them have about as good a chance of winning the presidency as the Mariners' chance of winning the Super Bowl.

Take Beto O'Rourke. A semi-popular representative from Texas, O'Rourke is best known for almost beating Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race—the operative word here being almost. Dude is tall, which is kind of a presidential quality, and while I personally like his stance on guns (he favors a mandatory buy-back program), not only is he not going to win the nomination (as of this week, he is polling at 3 percent), if he did win it, he would probably lose to Donald Trump. I can see already see the attack ads, which will feature a hell of a lot of AK-15s and the people who won't give them up. 

Why is Beto running in the first place? I assume it's some combo of personal ambition and a genuine belief in his own ability to save the planet, but Beto, like several other candidates both on stage and off, can do more good elsewhere in government.

I know, I know. The title "Senator" doesn't have quite the same ring as "President." But if—fingers crossed—the next President is a Democrat, he or she will be completely unable to get any legislation done if Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans maintain control of the Senate. We've seen it before, and not all that long ago. Barack Obama was so unable to pass most legislation that he resorted to executive orders instead, many of which were immediately overturned by the next guy in office. Obama could have been—should have been—a great, monumental President, but without a Congress actually willing to work with him, his legislative impact was far smaller than it should have been.

For the Democrats to flip the Senate, they'll need to maintain the seats they already have and win at least three or four more, and it just so happens that there are multiple Democratic candidates for President from states that could be competitive. This includes both Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro of Texas, Steve Bullock of Montana, Pete Buttigieg of Indiana, and Michael Bennet of Colorado, who is already serving in the Senate. Democrats winning Senate races in those states could mean the difference between actually getting some legislation passed (and filling however many Federal and Supreme Court vacancies come up in the next term) and a repeat of the Obama administration: ambitious plans thwarted by Republican stonewalling.

I believe all these candidates do care about the future of the U.S. and the American people. But if they cared about the country as much as their care about their own careers, they would quit these quixotic quests for President and run for Senate.

Note: An earlier edition of this post erroneously reported that Pete Buttigieg is from Iowa, not Indiana, which is, apparently, a different state. We regret the error (but he should still drop out and run for Senate in Iowa).