How Donald Trump channeled doom and gloom to win the GOP debate

It's midnight in America

Lording over our gloom.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Christopher Aluka Berry)

The Republican candidates are in a sour, gloomy mood. At Tuesday night's debate, the contenders promised increasingly extreme responses to ISIS-related terror, draining the evening of all levity. And Donald Trump's persistent lead in the polls this deep into December has the whole field restless. The debate saw Ted Cruz and Rand Paul attacking Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush attacking Trump. The mood of the event was something like this: It's midnight in America.

And if that's the spirit of the moment, it only helps Donald Trump.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.