[Hoot Gibson]

This would have been an easy race to win for a decent, authentic Republican candidate. Trump is the most unpopular presidential candidate in history and he is and will continue to humiliate the Republican Party.

Even today, with the spotlight on Hillary Clinton's crimes and gross negligence, he found time to praise Saddam Hussein as a great force against terrorism. What Trump's brilliant analysis left out, of course, is that Hussein was a terrorist who murdered Iraqi citizens by the thousands and threatened to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush.

The old adage that any publicity is good publicity may work for a reality TV star, but it does not play well for a presidential candidate. Instead of keeping the focus on the second most unpopular presidential candidate in history for a full day, Trump could not resist making another controversial statement to compete for news coverage. Just the latest blunder by the presumptive Republican nominee who does not really seem committed to winning this election.

No matter how you look at it, Trump's not winning

History and polls speak doom for his campaign, but he'll leave an indelible mark on the party.

Amid the incessant din of election-year punditry and prognostication, one fact reigns supreme: Republicans vote for Republicans and Democrats vote for Democrats.

It is an inescapable truth that informs 90% of races; the more members of one party that reside in any given state or district, the better chance a politician of that party will win. It is why America is freckled with "red" and "blue" states and "safe" congressional seats. It is also why American presidential races are typically close, regardless of who the candidates may be.

But 2016 is no typical year. Republicans have nominated a candidate who is only recently and tangentially Republican, and whose staunchest supporters are left to argue he is fit for the presidency only because his Democratic opponent is more unfit.

It has long been clear that Donald Trump's party fluidity almost certainly will spell doom for Republicans in November. Trump hurdled the GOP primary field because he said things politicians could never say — and now Republicans are going to learn the hard way why politicians never say those things. Trump is now the Bruce Willis character in "The Sixth Sense": his candidacy is dead, he just doesn't realize it yet. (Sorry for the spoiler, but c'mon — it's been 17 years.)

The myriad ways Trump's candidacy will fail provide a Rashomon-style buffet of scenarios to contemplate. Even if "Generic Republican" were on the ballot, he or she would be at a distinct electoral disadvantage — Trump's repulsiveness simply accelerates that disadvantage. (If anyone has a black and white "Generic Republican" yard sign, decorated with a UPC bar code, I will happily purchase one.)

As Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post frequently points out, given the GOP's built-in underdog status, Hillary Clinton only needs to win every state Democrats have won in every presidential election since 1992, then add Florida, and she is the winner.