Washington • The failings and outrages of President Trump were curiously absent Wednesday from the first Democratic presidential debate. Beto O’Rourke had a bad night, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a good night and Julian Castro had a great night. But nobody scored a definitive victory, and nobody ended the evening sprawled on the canvas.
O’Rourke was staggered, though. The most heated exchange came when his fellow Texan, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Castro, snapped that O’Rourke “should do your homework” on the intricacies of immigration policy. O’Rourke seemed flustered. He clearly had a plan coming into the debate — early on, in the middle of his first answer, he surprised everyone by breaking into Spanish — but direct confrontation seemed to take him out of his comfort zone.