Acting and sounding like the nominee.

The fourth and final Republican presidential debate of the year is set for tonight at 7 o'clock Texas time. It's taking place at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

This debate is put on by NewsNation, which bills itself as “the fastest-growing network in primetime cable news.” For most viewers in East Texas, NewsNation isn't available on local cable systems. It's largely a cord-cutters network that is accessed by streaming on services like YouTube TV and Hulu.

On stage tonight will be Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, having all four met the Republican National Committee's qualifying criteria.

For the fourth time out of four, former president Donald Trump will not be on the stage. His strategy of skipping the primary debates appears to be paying off. He continues to enjoy a commanding lead among Republicans according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. As of today, he leads nationally by 48 points over Florida governor Ron DeSantis. He leads in Iowa by 29 over DeSantis. And in New Hampshire, he leads Nikki Haley by 27.

Trump was on the stage last night in Davenport, Iowa. At a townhall event aired on the FOX News Channel and moderated by Sean Hannity he had little to say about his GOP rivals. He trained his fire on President Joe Biden in the hour-long event in which he talked and acted as if he were already the nominee.

We have a man who can't put two sentences together. We have a man who doesn't know he's alive. And he's backed up by the media. We have somebody who was never at the top of his game. Twenty five years ago he wasn't one of the light bulbs – he wasn't one of the bright ones.”

When Hannity questioned him on foreign policy and the state of the world, the former president said this.

“We're laughed at all over the world. People that respected us three years ago, they respected us. You wouldn't have Ukraine and Russia, you wouldn't have had the attack on Israel. You wouldn't have had that withdrawal, we would have withdrawn from Afghanistan with tremendous strength and power…”

Trump addressed accusations from Democrats that he intends to act as a dictator.

He said, you're not gonna be a dictator are you? I said, no, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that I'm not a dictator.”

Trump sized up the 2024 election and offered this conclusion as to which candidate the Democrats would least like to run against.

The person they don't want to run against is us. It's us. It's not me, it's us. ‘Cause it's a movement the likes of which this country, Sean, has never seen before.”

In every way last night Donald Trump spoke and acted like the nominee of the Republican Party. With the Iowa Caucuses now just 26 days away, it's becoming hard to imagine any scenario in which he isn't.