Anyone who forgot to tune in to today’s Republican presidential debate from Des Moines missed absolutely nothing. To recap: Fred Thompson went after Mitt Romney early about living large, Mitt Romney said something in response about how Fred is rich too, both chuckled at their respective sense of humor, and then Fred Thompson fell asleep or something and the debate droned on for another hour.The only new thing we learned was that Alan Keyes is running for president. No, really. He’s even on the ballot in seven states. Apparently, he didn’t announce his candidacy until September, and has been excluded from half of the debates since. Something about him being absolutely insane, I think. He made his presence felt in Iowa, though, by announcing he would not support any of the other candidates if he does not get the nomination. Could the Keyes endorsement be the final straw that gives the Democrats the edge in November? We can only speculate at this point.On an entirely unrelated note, viewpoints columnist Ethan Staniskfosd;gds (sp?) has a new blog devoted to sporting pursuits and the like. It’s called Dump Dolan and is already generating lukewarm buzz among the University of Chicago blogging community.