For Donald Trump, this was more than a terrible week. It was a turning point
Trump has demolished his campaign, his brand and his party. He has squandered his vice-presidential pick and his convention, and several battleground states along with them. He picked several fights he could not win, and showed no sign of learning from his own failure.
Of course, these aren’t the closing weeks of the 2016 campaign. Trump could yet turn around his national polling deficit of up to 14 points. He could flip the polls in Florida (down four), Michigan (down nine), Pennsylvania (down 13) and New Hampshire (down 15). He could turn Georgia and Utah back into reliably Republican states again, instead of being dead-heat states.
But Trump only has one shot left to do that: the TV debates that start in another seven weeks. At the same time, history suggests that post-convention polling is remarkably stable stretching all the way into the final days of an election.
It’s going to be a long, hot summer for the orange one.