Unsettling may be the kindest way of describing the presidential debate on Sunday night that often seemed like an extended "Saturday Night Live" skit filled with cringe-worthy moments.
Nolan Finley, head of The Detroit News' conservative editorial page, thought Donald Trump failed to do what he needed to reverse his fortunes following the release of a video in which Trump tells former "Access Hollywood" personality Billy Bush how stardom lets him take advantage of women.
Finley writes:
Destroyed. Dead. Done.
That’s the status of Donald Trump’s campaign following the worst weekend for a presidential candidate ever.
He walked onto the stage of Washington University in St. Louis Sunday night needing to erase his words captured on an 11-year-old videotape, strategically released to coincide with the debate, that served as a primer of sorts for molesting women.
He didn’t deliver.
The second question of the evening, from moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN, went directly to the tape, asking Trump if he did the things he spoke of in the recording. Instead of a sincere apology and a plausible explanation, he dismissed it as locker room talk and quickly pivoted to a ramble about defeating ISIS and keeping America safe. The moment called for contrition and a convincing assurance that he was a changed man. Trump lost the night right there.
He didn’t make the issue go away, and he also failed at his second mission — looking presidential.
The News has endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.
Also read Stephen Henderson, editorial page editor at the Detroit Free Press: On Trump's divisive policies, Michigan GOP fails to lead:
Now, even the faithful seem to smell the manure. . . . He’s increasingly clownish as a candidate, and may indeed be headed for a crushing defeat. . . .
But his demise won’t cure what ails the conservative party in this country.
That can only happen after [Lt. Gov. Brian] Calley and [Atty. Gen. Bill] Schuette – and other party leaders – commit themselves to policy imperatives that look a lot different than what the GOP has embraced for some time now.
I’m not holding my breath.
