Did you watch the second round of Democratic debates?

We sympathise. It was all a bit of a mess, really. There were too many people, with too few things to say, up on that stage for anything to make sense. When Elizabeth Warren cut across the ramblings of former Representative John Delaney to say “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running to be the president of the United States to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” she expressed the bone-weary malaise of many people watching this election cycle from afar. What’s that expression again? Too many cooks in the kitchen?

Warren was a formidable figure at the debate, dominating the speaking time alongside Bernie Sanders. She managed to at least put forth some of her policy ideas before the debate descended into a game of scrappy comeback tennis, with the candidates looking to score points off each other rather than reckoning with the gaping divide within the party on such crucial subjects as healthcare, immigration and climate change.

Marianne Williamson: the second Democratic debate is a reminder not to underestimate this candidate