It's not every day or every lifetime that you confront 17 characters such as these who pursue a seemingly wide-open Republican presidential nomination.
So let's fire arrows specific to this contest, admitting they are premature in terms of real substance. But they are perfectly timed in terms of interest.
There isn't room to assess all 17. So just know that any of the GOP candidates not mentioned may be assumed worthy of a downward arrow.
Way downward.
So in something resembling a supposed order of strength:
Donald Trump--Polls are all over the place after the debate and his subsequent apparent reference to menstruation in regard to a Fox News anchor who asked him a hard--and fair--question. But the most credible of those polls show slippage of a few points in Iowa, New Hampshire and nationwide.
He still leads, but that's on account of a down arrow for the field--or, more accurately, the conventional front-runners. He is a phenomenon and thus he has a ceiling. He won't go much higher.
The question, in more ways than one, is how low he can go.
Jeb Bush--He is the best-funded in the field by an overwhelming margin. He is the clear establishment choice. Yet he is incurably bland, except when he's making conspicuous missteps. He needs to take command for the Republicans to have order. Perhaps he will do that when the primaries and caucuses cascade and his money does for him what his skills can't.
Scott Walker--He is the Kochs' favorite and a darling of public union-haters for defeating them and weathering a liberal assault as governor of Wisconsin. But he makes Jeb seem charismatic.
Walker was the one on the other side of Trump from Jeb. Dark hair. Heavy makeup. Said the Chinese know more about Hillary's emails than we do. Still can't recall him?
Ted Cruz--Yes, up. Here's the thing. Trump may well fade. The angry and disaffected hordes who favor him will go somewhere. At least some of them will. Others among them may bail out, probably because they never really much bailed in. Cruz has made the best play for them. And now we see him venturing across the South--including into Arkansas--to lay seeds for the big region-wide primary.
Here's how I'll put it: If the candidates were stocks, I'd recommend Bush as low-risk, Walker as moderate-risk and Cruz for high-risk, high-reward.
Marco Rubio--He did all right in the debate, showing skill and thus encouraging strategic-minded Republicans who like the idea of going into the general election with a young Hispanic candidate from an electorally decisive state, either at the top or the bottom of the ticket.
John Kasich--He's the highly accomplished former congressional budget chairman and the highly successful current Ohio governor, if, that is, economic turnarounds and revenue solvency count for anything. He's also the lone candidate--well, among serious ones--who dares to do and say socially moderate things. That could appeal in New Hampshire, where he shot post-debate to 12 percent. Florida is not the single most essential state electorally. Ohio is at least as essential.
Kasich could parlay his maverick moderation into a place at the bottom of the ticket. The right wing wouldn't like it. But what is it going to do? Vote for Bernie Sanders?
Carly Fiorina--The former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, where she got fired, performed flawlessly in the junior-varsity debate, revealing a commanding style and toughness that probably won't get her on the ticket, but might, for gender-appeal reasons.
Rand Paul--He makes his father seem normal.
Chris Christie--His deal was that he was a smashingly successful governor of a Democratic state where the Democrats liked him. So now New Jersey has had nine credit downgrades, is 44th nationally in job growth and endures a pension crisis.
The latest poll shows Christie's disapproval rating in Jersey at 59 percent. And now they are even saying the Hurricane Sandy rebuilding effort hasn't been all that.
Ben Carson--He is more valuable fixing other brains than showing us his own.
Mike Huckabee--Yes, up. I think what will happen after he gives up this presidential nonsense is that one of the Christian television networks will start a late-night comedy talk show with a conservative religious emphasis. It will be something to give the God-fearing people a late-night alternative. You know--guests like Pat Boone and that woman from The Middle and Chris Pratt.
I think Mike will be ... not the talk show's star, but the affable announcer-sidekick. A sober Ed McMahon, if you will, famous for a voice, a few oft-repeated words and no other discernible reason.
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John Brummett's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
Editorial on 08/13/2015