You and about 9 million of your closest friends in the state probably missed it the other night.

But there they were: eight of the 10 GOP candidates for governor, duking it out in their first joint appearance — minus, of course, James Craig, who was by himself, singing a chorus of “first you say you will and then you won’t.”

It’s now his theme song, because he committed to do the gig weeks ago, but, at the 11th-and-a-half hour, he suddenly had a scheduling conflict. His team advised that he did not pull out of the debate, but had a scheduling conflict.

Yeah, nobody was buying that, but that was their cover story, for better or worse.

For the eight that did show up, there were all the usual questions on abortion, the COVID-19 vaccine, and other items that Republicans love to discuss, such as who really won the 2020 presidential election.

What follows focuses on three issues that deserve a deeper dive, as they reveal something about the inner workings of each person, beginning with tax cuts.

Candidate Kevin Rinke was appropriately asked how he would pay for the total elimination of the state income tax on his first month in office, assuming he is elected and the Legislature would move fast enough to wipe out the tax. Those are two big ifs.

In his initial rollout of the tax cut plan, he neglected to list any areas of the budget he would slice and dice to make up for the lost tax revenue, and he continued to sing that same tune on Thursday night, noting that he would have to make those tough calls in concert with lawmakers.

But that’s not how the game is actually played. The governor proposes the budget first and then the lawmakers dispose of it, but the former car salesman apparently did not know that unwritten rule.

If elected, he could try to dodge the “where will I cut state services” bullet by leaving it out of his budget, but, chances are, lawmakers will want him to lead the parade first.

On the gay rights front, the Michigan business leaders have made it very clear that they want to expand state law to be more inclusive for the gay community so as to expand Michigan’s attractiveness to all segments of the working population.

So the biz leaders must have watched with great interest when the candidates punted when asked their views on expanding the state’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include more protections for the LGBTQ citizens.

It was a rapid series of one “no” after another, with the only deviation coming from Michigan State Police Capt. Michael Brown, who suggested those rights were already enshrined in state law.

Needless to say, the backers of the civil rights law would disagree, which is why they are still pushing to expand it.

And then this one sent shivers up and down the spines of those folks who run the state’s 15 major universities.

Those schools have always been fair targets, given their enormity and the cost to taxpayers to run them. But never before did anyone have the audacity to ask this one: Should the state stop funding higher education?

Caboom in the 15 universities, from Marquette to Ann Arbor, who did not want to hear that even asked.

The good news for the presidents is only one of the GOP hopefuls said yes. The Rev. Ralph ReBandt wants to “fund the students and not the schools,” but he probably won’t become governor, and, if he does, for sure, he will never be invited to the press box to be wined and dined on football Saturdays.

However, the answers from the rest of the crop will still give the university honchos some sleepless nights.

Mr. Brown says he would fund the schools but he wants every college kid to get the same state support as everyone else. That groan you just heard came from East Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Wayne State that gobble up the lion’s share of state support now and they are in no mood to share and share alike.

Then there was Mike Markey, a Harvard grad, who would limit who gets into college.

Garrett Soldano wanted the schools to do more private funding.

Ryan Kelley noted that, to halt state aid, you would have to change the state Constitution.

Kevin Rinke continued what has turned out to be his go-to line when faced with a tough question. He reflected he couldn’t answer the question until he had a chance to “review” the notion, but then he did opine that cuts should be made and some schools should go private based on huge endowment funds.

Tudor Dixon was all in on keeping state aid to colleges with no caveats, and Perry Johnson wanted to make some cuts while he advised higher ed to knock it off with all the state aid going to “students from foreign countries.”

The decidedly conservative GOP crowd in Howell just loved that.

The same can not be said for the Ivory Tower bunch, which could not wait for this line of questioning to cease.