Tonight at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, five Democratic candidates will take the stage to debate. Among them will be Hillary Clinton, the putative frontrunner, and Bernie Sanders, the popular Democratic socialist who has mounted a serious challenge to her in the early states.

The other three candidates, you don’t really need to know their names at this point because they are polling a combined three percent. But two are former governors — Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Martin O’Malley of Maryland — and another is a former senator (Jim Webb). These three will basically be on the stage to consume time that Sanders would otherwise use to put the screws to Clinton.

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