Losing the opening TV debate need not necessarily spell disaster for a presidential campaign. Four years ago, Barack Obama was widely assumed to have lost to Mitt Romney. The polls moved briefly towards Romney but the president bounced back in the final two en route to a landslide.
A good omen, then, for Donald Trump supporters who had to suffer watching their man lose badly at Hofstra University two weeks ago, and the polls predictably respond in Clinton’s favour. That debate humilation, however, seems like a lifetime ago and the least of Trump’s worries.
Frankly, this election has become breathlessly exciting. Taking your eye off it for 24 hours, even just sleeping, invariably means missing some potential game-changing bombshell. There has surely never been a better time to own shares in US cable news.
As anyone paying attention will know, this weekend’s headlines are dominated by the issue trending on Twitter as #TrumpTapes – a 2005 recording of Trump bragging explictly to Billy Bush of NBC’s “Access Hollywood” about his sexual exploits, pursuing a married woman and how fame enables him to kiss and grope random women.