For a long time, the story Republicans told themselves about Donald Trump was that he could “normalize,” that once he had won the nomination he would calm down and be rational, stabilize his own team, organize his own structure and start to run against Democrats, instead of those in his own party. Wrong. He launched endless tirades against other Republicans, rallied in states that were not in contention, fired one aide accused of shoving a female reporter, hired a new one with ties to corrupt foreign powers; and dropped him for the head of a race-baiting website, once accused of abusing his wife.

They said the main thing was to get through the convention without much dissension, and after that things would settle. But the Trump Exposition was less than successful, and a week later their new and self-disciplined candidate had launched his assault on the Khans. Now they say they should run against Hillary Clinton and the Court she’d appoint as the way to lift themselves out of the hole into which Trump has dumped them. But there’s every sign that this will fail, too.