If it did nothing else, Wednesday’s GOP debate proved that these things work a lot better with just five candidates, not seven or eight: The night saw next-to-no crosstalk, everyone got plenty of time to have their say, and the information-to-noise ratio was high.

More, it held the promise of fewer competitors next time around: Gov. Nikki Haley was again the smoothest performer (despite the challenges of being the only woman on the stage), while Gov. Ron DeSantis held his own though it’s obvious (sometimes painfully so) that this is not his natural forum.

Vivek Ramaswamy, meanwhile, ruled himself out of serious consideration by repeatedly dropping into conspiracy theories (e.g., President Biden only supports Ukraine because he’s being blackmailed, not because a win for Vladimir Putin would be a disaster for the West) and outright lunacy (calling Volodymyr Zelensky a Nazi, when he’s Jewish; Ramaswamy later claimed he’d misspoken).

His descent into crankery seems focused exclusively on gaining maximum Twitter (er, X) attention.

Once a fresh voice, Ramaswamy now comes off as obnoxious, blatantly deeming himself the brightest kid in the room. Sad.

Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Chris Christie must decide for themselves when to drop out, but they’re clearly not gaining ground, though each had strong moments.

However fast the field narrows (and qualifying gets harder with each round), the growing question is whether former President Donald Trump will deign (or dare) to join the fray.

Is he afraid to mix it up with rivals he mocks as “Birdbrain” and “DeSanctimonious”?

If Trump is to win back the White House, he’ll need to ease many Republican voters’ concerns about a host of issue — above all, whether he can truly focus on the future, rather than his past grievances.

His best hope of doing that is to take on his rivals (yes, ones still lower in the primary polls) face-to-face.