Not that you asked

Here's just a few observations on the second Republican debate for what they're worth.

The crowd at this debate didn't serve as a cheerleading squad for Donald Trump the way the first one did. That's probably because this debate wasn't put on by FOX News. The crowds that they would have would be far more amenable to the red meat Trump serves up than one at a CNN debate.

The best line of the night was by far the one that Carly Fiorina used to deflate Trump's earlier remarks about her appearance to Rolling Stone. I doubt that it was an off the cuff remark like Ronald Reagan's gentle reproof of Jimmy Carter with, "There you go again," or Lloyd Bentsen's destruction of Dan Quale with, "You're no Jack Kennedy Senator." I'm sure she and her people expected the subject to come up and were prepared for it. That doesn't make it any less of a great line, and she delivered it perfectly.

I was amazed when Jeb Bush gave everybody else up there a free gift, and none of them bothered to open it. During an exchange with Trump about his brother's Presidency, Bush declared, "One thing about my brother, he kept us safe." Not one of the other candidates reminded him that his brother was president on 9-11. I know it was a Republican debate, and everybody up there was a Republican, but they are running against a Bush, so why not remind the voters that another Bush failed spectacularly at keeping us safe on that day? Besides, if it's fair game to blame Hillary Clinton for an attack on an American Embassy where four people died when she was Secretary of State, it's just as fair to blame Bush for almost 3,000 deaths on that day.

But the grand prize for showcasing his ignorance went to the Huckster, our own Mike Huckabee. He went on a rant about how no one seemed to remember the lessons from high school civics, and then proceeded to prove that he didn't know anything about civics or American government. He claimed that the three branches of government weren't equal. He claimed that our systems of checks and balances no longer worked. He claimed that the Supreme Court makes laws. He finally claimed that the will of the people trumps the Constitution. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

For the Huckster's benefit, and for the rest of you who slept through Civics and American Government, here's how the system works. Congress debates bills and either passes or defeats them. If a bill passes it goes to the President, who either signs it into law or vetoes it. If he vetoes it, Congress can override it if it has the votes. Once a bill becomes law the President administers it. If someone challenges a law in court, and it reaches the Supreme Court, the justices decide whether or not the law is constitutional.

That's what happened in the same sex marriage case. The Supreme Court didn't make a law allowing same sex marriage. A case came before them challenging laws banning same sex marriage on the basis that such laws violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. A majority of the Court ruled in favor of that argument. As for the will of the people, we are a nation of laws not men. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. If the will of the people goes against the Constitution, the people are wrong. That's the same argument Southern governors like Wallace and Faubus tried to use in defying Brown v. Board of Education. Remember how that turned out?

There are Supreme Court decisions that I haven't agreed with, but they still stood. I've never understood the Bush v. Gore decision where the Court virtually put George W. Bush in the White House even though Al Gore won the popular vote. I don't remember Mike Huckabee ranting about the will of the people then.

In closing, I have one final question that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the above, but I just have to ask it anyway: Do you think Gus Malzhan regrets leaving Arkansas State yet?