As we get older, some of us accumulate pet peeves. For me, this is one: when journalists write of an upcoming event as tantamount to a turning point in the history of civilization, or at least since the invention of sliced bread. In politics, many important events shape elections, and a succession of events big and small make up what we call the campaign. For some of the candidates, Tuesday night’s Republican debate in Las Vegas, sponsored by CNN and Facebook, is critically important; for others, even a strong performance would likely be too little, too late. There are likely to be no additional events between now and the first week of January—nothing that’s planned, anyway—that can change the dynamics of this race. For Chris Christie, the tough-talking governor of New Jersey and a former U.S. attorney, the terrorist attacks in Paris seem to have provided a spark. His commanding performances at New Hampshire town meetings and the recent endorsement of his candidacy by the influential New Hampshire Union Leader have pushed Christie into contention with Marco Rubio for the
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