I'm still kind of amazed how the entire election has changed since that first debate last week. Before, Hillary was on the defensive with lots of stories about her health, her involvement with the Clinton Institute and her general honesty. Now, she seems to have pretty decisively won the "Who has the right temperament?" argument and the stories are on Trump's defects as a human being, his mistreatment of women, his non-payment of taxes and his use of the Trump Institute for personal benefits.
As others have written, it sure looks like the Clinton side sprung a trap on him, bringing up the Alicia Machado matter, whereupon Trump stepped into it more fully than they could have dreamed. At best, he looks like a man who may have been wrongly criticized but who got way too upset and obsessed with firing back at and hurting this woman…a man unable to rise above anything. Telling everyone to check out her "sex tape" is really wacko since, first of all, they'll only be disappointed to find out that what he was calling one isn't one. He and his wives have been in steamier films and photos than that.
And if I were a voter who was looking for President Trump to change things about immigration or the economy or social issues, I'd be really bothered about how easily he seems to be distracted by personal slights. This week, he probably spent more time talking about Rosie O'Donnell's obesity than he did about securing our borders. Talk about not looking presidential.
The next debate is next Sunday and it's "town hall" style. That means that the questions will be a bit less predictable. (The charge that Hillary Clinton got the questions in advance in the first debate is really silly when you consider that anyone on either candidate's staff could have made out a list of 30 likely questions and almost everything Lester Holt asked would have been on it.)
Next Sunday though, the questions come from audience members and Trump will not only have to field them but largely address his replies to those audience members. That means being civil to them and saying, "Thank you for that question" when they ask something he'd rather not talk about. If you're going to prove you can be nastier than her and you want to bring up Bill's sexual exploits, as Trump seems to be promising, that's not the ideal place to do it.
I dunno. Maybe he can pull it off. I think he needs to relax…maybe take a day off or something. He should spend the afternoon at the zoo, calling the baboons all sluts and fat-shaming the elephants.