The Republican debate was another grim exercise in futility and attention-seeking | Lloyd Green

The winner of the last debate before the Iowa caucus was, yet again, an absent and resurgent Trump

On Wednesday night, the Republican party staged its fourth primary debate, the last one before next month's Iowa caucus.

Once again, Donald Trump won in absentia. His repeated absences from these dust-ups have burnished his image among the party faithful. He holds an insurmountable and growing lead. Indictments and headlines have only boosted his popularity. He laps the field, running 40 points ahead of Ron DeSantis nationally. Other than Chris Christie, no one on the stage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did anything to alter these realities.

Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992