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Trumping up reasons to watch

OK, let’s face it, Donald Trump is the most compelling reason to watch any of the Republican debates among candidates for the GOP presidential nomination.

And maybe, now, Carly Fiorina. And to a lesser extent, Chris Christie.

Because the others are, despite their black suits, varying shades of gray, and as we all know, gray is boring.

But Trump livens up things, and Fiori­na has started giving as good as she gets, especially from Trump, who continues to make a humorous jerk of himself by re­ferring to people’s looks. He got in a nice shot at Rand Paul’s features at the last debate after wondering what the heck Paul was doing in the debate, anyway, when initially there were supposed to be only 10 candidates (only?), and he was so low in the polls that he was clearly No. 11.

And he got some shots at Jeb Bush, who, nicely, got some shots in at him, some­thing upon which Trump even remarked, indicating he thought it was about time Bush got tougher.

But as compelling as Trump is, what’s the message here? That fun counts more than ideas, because ideas, like guys in gray, are boring. Except that they aren’t, of course. Mostly what’s boring is the way they’re presented.

But even when ideas are presented in an interesting way, many people tune out. Really, how many folks would watch the GOP debates if Trump weren’t up there having the time of his life? A lot fewer.

So, really, we have Trump to thank for getting voters to watch a spectacle out of which might come some real discussion, albeit around Trump. But if Bush or Mar­co Rubio or Fiorina can find a few min­utes on the stage to tell us what they’re actually going to do, well, good.

The problem is, nobody ever tells us what they’re actually going to do. It’s all a big secret, like Nixon’s plan to end the Vietnam War. They keep saying they’ll "Bring America Back" or "Make America Strong Again," but they never say how.

Hmmmmm. Maybe they don’t know how. Does anyone?