Who will stand up for the insurance town in the 2020 election ? Why should the government do things? Will Bernie Sanders bankrupt America? Who onstage will let Iran have a nuclear weapon you know, just because?

If these sound like terrible questions to you, youre right. They were awful. And they were the focus of CNN s tedious, interminable, frivolous debate on Tuesday night a fiasco of irrelevance held three weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

Again and again, CNN anchors substituted centrist talking points for questions and then followed up predictable responses with further centrist talking points, rarely illuminating any substantive disagreements between the candidates or problems with their policy positions.

CNN anchor Abby Phillip asked former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg if he would embrace President Donald Trump s vow to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. When Buttigieg said that yes, in fact, he would block Iran from going nuclear, Phillip persisted: Mayor Buttigieg, to be clear, would you allow Iran to become a nuclear power, yes or no? Buttigieg acknowledged that, no, he would not.

If it isnt obvious, no presidential candidate is going to strut out on national television and say, Yes, I want to ensure that other countries get more nuclear weapons. None. Everybody knows nuclear weapons are bad. It takes no moral sacrifice or strategic cunning to state that yes, you too are against nuclear weapons.