Yesterday, I wrote that the debate between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom was pointless. Today, Noah illustrates why:

Newsom often retreated from the weedy, policy-centric discussions about specific state-level policies to mock the Florida governor over his lackluster performance in the polls of Republican primary voters. “You’re down 41 points in your own home state,” he sneered. “When are you going to drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump?”

This is a perfect summary of last night’s argument, which DeSantis won hands down, but which doesn’t matter because, in our current political moment, all “weedy, policy-centric discussions about specific state-level policies” have been deemed irrelevant in the face of the crude horse-race in which the press is exclusively interested.