In mid-August, peering into the political abyss, Trump did indeed “pivot.” He adopted a little more discipline and stabilized his campaign, pulling into a near-tie before last week’s debate. The high-water mark for the pivot turns out to have been 20 minutes or so into the debate, when he appeared to be trying to execute a rational plan to present himself as a reasonable option for president. But after that the wheels came off. He reverted to the typical shouty Trump during the rest of debate, turning in at times a parodic performance; he pursued his feud with a former Miss Universe the rest of the week; and he capped it all off with one of his most jaw-dropping performances ever at a rally over the weekend. Because of a bizarre dearth of polling since the debate, we don’t know exactly where the race now stands. Given Hillary’s historic weakness, it may still be quite close. But Trump is doing himself no favors and can’t afford another debate performance like his first on Sunday night.