Beyond Boring

Donald Trump, with his familiar rants and raves, is definitely boring. But it's beyond that.

He is a man who is out of control. He often sounds demented and divorced from reality, raising the question of whether he really is suffering from progressive dementia. It certainly sounds like it.

For weeks now, his aides and allies have been urging him to stick to the script, to stop his childish name calling -- which has been stunningly ineffective and makes him sound like a toddler having a tantrum -- and focus on the issues people actually care about. At first, they reportedly told it to him privately. These days, they are doing it on television and in print, in the apparent hope that he will heed what he sees on TV and reads in the paper.

It isn't working. He plainly cannot control himself.

This was supposed to be a week where he focused on the economy, the number one issue on voters' minds, in both a speech and a press conference. He had prepared remarks for both. He even had props, a table laden with groceries, for his press conference.

It didn't matter. He did what he did for his biggest speech to date, his acceptance speech at the convention. As soon as he could, he veered off script and went on the attack.

At the press conference, he insisted that he was "entitled" to personally attack Kamala Harris because she called him "weird." He is weird. But that's beside the point. He insisted that he was not going to change the tone of his campaign because he is running a very "calm" campaign, which he most certainly is not. Even though it was styled as a press conference, he ranted for 45 minutes before taking the first question, veering between the economy and attacks on Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and windmills. He accused Kamala Harris of being "a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world." He went after her running mate for putting tampons in school bathrooms. He claimed, without any facts, that the vice president would impose "price controls" on groceries, which would lead to "food shortages, rationing and hunger." What? How?

The media covers what he says and puts it in quotes, pointing out that it is impossible to fact check claims that have no basis in fact. They collect the latest round of insults -- grossly incompetent, radical, communist and sick being among Thursday's taunts. It has become business as usual in covering a candidate who is out of control and frequently makes no sense. Trump being Trump. "Unfiltered" is how his running mate defends it.

It should not be business as usual for a presidential candidate. We should not be so used to it that we accept it or dismiss it. This is not the same as the candidate we saw in 2016 and 2020. He has deteriorated, and he continues to do so before our eyes.

After Biden's performance at the debate, Democrats recognized they had a problem. And they dealt with it. They did not convince Biden that he was going to lose; reportedly, he still believes that he could have beaten Donald Trump. But his candidacy was unsustainable, and he accepted that.

So is Donald Trump's. Republicans are running a candidate who should not, under any circumstances, be president. He is not going to get better. He is not going to listen. He is not going to stick to the strategy that any sane and competent person would follow. He is not that person. Are there any Republican leaders left with the integrity to recognize that? Boring is OK. Boring we can survive. Crazy is not. Diminished is not.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.