Was it just too nasty to have to watch the third Democratic debate?  Were the droning and bee ess just a little more than a sane person could handle?

John Podhoretz at the New York Post may have been alone in his office when he wrote this after viewing the dreck, but he spoke for many:

As the Democratic debate in Houston entered its third hour last night, I rose from my chair and said, "ABC, let the American people go!" And there was no one to cheer, for I was alone in my office.

Finally, there was to be one debate, 10 candidates, with frontrunners Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren facing each other at last. What happened was what Preminger's Israelis would have called a "balagan" — bedlam, chaos, tumult, like trying to conduct a conversation at Times Square when the 1 and the 2 are pulling into the station simultaneously.

On issue after issue, the candidates engaged in unclear, confusing, halting policy discussions — that is, when they weren't engaging in pettifoggery designed to occlude our understanding of their views rather than clarifying them.

Yep, it was a dog, way too long for a lot of us, so here's a quickie reference guide:

Issues & Insights has a well curated list of all the gross lowlights from all of the Democrats as they did their debate here.

The Washington Post has its own summary of winners and losers, fairly neutral in perspective, considering, readable with a subscription here.

Slate has a chronological listing of what went down, loaded with revolting leftist bias but useful in its own way here.

The Washington Post also has an easily searchable actual transcript of the whole mess, to check out every last miserable gaffe here.

More summaries:

Axios has its five takeaways with a left-leaning slant here.

The Hill has its five takeaways here.

Boston.com has its five takeaways here.

ABC News has its five takeaways here.

(They all do five takeaways!)

And don't miss RealClearPolitics, which always is worth a look.

Image credit: ABC News, via shareable YouTube, screen shot.