1) Too many Donald Trump questions. We’re going to have to suffer through watching him later — can we just let it go for now?
2) Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is clearly in a fighting mood, and he has to be. The expectations are high because he’s the only person on this stage who has much chance of catching fire. It’s not an easy or a likely path, but he has a path that begins with a strong showing in Iowa. Rick Santorum, George Pataki and Lindsey Graham probably don’t have even that.
3) All of the tough talk about immigration has a target, but it would be refreshing tonight to hear someone bring up the reality — that the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has been declining since 2007, the number from Mexico is now lower than it was in 2005, and their share of the labor force hasn’t increased since then either.
4) Graham is doing surprisingly well with his brand of soft humor. The joke about Strom Thurmond doing his part to keep Social Security solvent (by having children after age 67) was pretty funny, and his point that we need more legal immigration unless others are willing to follow Strom’s example was well taken.
