It was inevitable: If given enough rope, Donald Trump would hang himself. Trump's statement Saturday in Iowa that Sen. John McCain was no war hero was all it took. This was so predictable; nobody knew exactly how Trump would self-destruct, but there was no doubt that he would. He can't help himself. As Republican Party leaders prepare to breathe a sigh of relief, it's worth thinking about Trump's surge and its meaning. At the time of his self-immolation, the real estate mogul was pulling between 13 and 18 percent of the Republican vote in July surveys—ahead of Jeb Bush in some polls, just behind him in others, but still firmly in second place. (A new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday showed Trump with a clear lead over the national GOP field, though it also found that support for Trump dropped in interviews conducted immediately after he made his McCain comments.) It's inexplicable to me that anyone could take seriously someone displaying such buffoonish behavior, but the fact that he was drawing more support than, at the very least, all
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