Donald Trump can never be the President of the United States. His performance has caused another campaign crisis, which is proof of the point. A President often must reply with diplomacy and even-handedness when attacked politically. The job requires restraint and composure. Trump's blustering, incoherent counterattack on the Khan family demonstrates the lack of those traits. On the contrary, he has spilled more gas on a fire, and it is out of control. Imagine if he were President.
It is not just Trump stumbling out of the gate. He is responding to criticism with the same reckless roughhouse tactics he used on Senators Rubio and Cruz. He demeaned a Gold Star mother as if she were another political rival. He fails to distinguish one kind of challenge from another, and he lacks the temperament for concession. The most adroit politician would find a way to turn this crisis into a positive message. The least clumsy would blunt the force of the issue with a measured response. Trump hadn't proven capable of meeting minimal standards of political competence.
The so-called down-ticket Senate candidates are looking for enough fuel to break free of Trump's gravitational pull. The Republican political class is finding the answer for its party is Not Donald Trump. This is the inevitable result of its Faustian embrace of the Tea Party. Even if he survives, the down-ticket candidates have become antagonists. It's only a matter of time before he goes into attack mode against them. A candidate pitted against his party is a recipe for chaos.
The debacle over the Khans forecasts how a Trump administration would react. Do you see poise and equanimity, de-escalation of the intensity, and the path to resolution and repose?