All day long the mantra has been the same: In Monday’s debate the bar is lower for Donald Trump—all he has to do is appear plausibly presidential. Commentators on the right and left have all hit the same note, arguing that Trump needs to ditch the feisty tabloid style that he brought to many of the Republican primary debates and instead present himself with a veneer of gravitas. Voters, we’re told, want reassurance he isn’t a crazy man who can’t be trusted with the keys to the nuclear arsenal. Hillary Clinton has staked her campaign on the claim that Trump is unfit, beyond the pale. And so, the argument goes, Trump wins if he just seems like a normal person.
Maybe. But Trump has tried on the reasonable-man persona before, and he hasn’t been particularly compelling. When he’s playing at being a regular-style candidate, he just doesn’t seem to be having much fun. He ends up being—dare I say it?—low energy.
