The Debate’s End

Thirty minutes after the debate’s official end, pods of people remained in the Arnold Rec Center Sunday night: a circle in the vestibule, a half-moon in the center aisle, two or three amorphous clumps up front, the one I belonged to, and the loud groups around Ed Martin.

“Why didn’t Russ Carnahan stay and talk to people,” a young woman asked, implying a contrast with Ed Martin’s happy conversation a few feet away.

“He did,” answered a man from our circle. “Not that many people wanted to talk to him.”