WASHINGTON -- No doubt you have butterflies just thinking about Thursday's first GOP debate.

I know I do.

Current quibbling over what Jeb Bush meant when he said it's time to phase out and replace Medicare -- as opposed to "attacking the seniors," as one woman at a recent event bellowed out -- will soon seem quaint against the realities of our future.

WASHINGTON -- "So, Mom," he says. "Did you tweet that you were going on 'Meet the Press'?"

No.

"Did you tweet that you were going on 'Hardball'?"

No.

By all appearances Friday morning, as thousands lined the street waiting (and wilting) for hours in 90-degree heat to enter the funeral arena in Charleston where President Obama was to deliver a eulogy for state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, racial unity seemed a comfortable fact of life.

Unspeakable, unimaginable, incomprehensible and unthinkable are the words we've heard and used to describe the horrific murders of nine African-Americans as they prayed in a Charleston, South Carolina, church, shot by a hate-filled racist on a genocidal purge.

If anyone should be feeling an overwhelming sense of Groundhog Day this presidential election, c'est moi.

It had a familiar ring:

"I don't ever know what people's motives are," said former President Bill Clinton, prompting one to pause and consider just what the definition of "motives" is.

Indeed, one doesn't ever know. But when a country or a firm gives large sums of money to a charity founded by a former U.S. president, whose wife happens to be secretary of state, and whose department may be considering business related to said donor, then one would not likely infer purely altruistic motives.

WASHINGTON -- Several years ago, I heard Republican strategist Karl Rove give a most eloquent answer to a question about his faith, rendered here from memory:

Faith is a gift that, unfortunately, I have not received.

I feel the same way about reality shows.

Whatever was given to the millions who delight in reality TV was not received by me. This is especially so when reality, religion and politics converge in a home populated by 19 children and two compulsively fertile adults.

WASHINGTON -- Because so many Republicans want to be president -- or at least pretend they do -- debate organizers have decided to eliminate the least popular from the stage based on how they rank in the latest national polls.

Trigger warning: This column will include discussion of ideas that may conflict with your own.

Those accustomed to reading or listening only to liberal commentators may not be aware of "trigger warnings" and "safe zones" on college campuses.