Don't let the new Prozac-version of Donald Trump fool you.
No matter how many new campaign managers he gets, no matter how many teleprompter speeches he gives, he's still the same hateful, hate-filled insulter and falsehood spinner we've come to know over the past year of campaign trumpery.
In August, The New York Times compiled a list of his Twitter insults just since June of 2015 when Trump first declared his candidacy. The list includes more than 4,000 tweets, and one in every eight was a personal insult of some kind directed to at least 258 people, places or things, according to the Times.
Examples: John Kasich is a "dummy" and Rick Perry "should be forced to take an IQ test."
Of course these insults mark just one of the Republican presidential nominee's many, many character flaws.
The far scarier shortcomings are reflected by what he thinks and does - and what he doesn't know and cannot comprehend.
This is a man who doesn't think it's important to show America his tax returns.
This is a man who talks about his business prowess, but has bankrupted his own companies six times.
This is a man who talks about "bringing jobs back" to America while his brand of shirts and ties is made overseas.
This is a man who built Trump University with sales people, not instructors and professors.
But let's talk for a moment just about his Trump University disaster. The now disgraced, defunct and under-investigation-for-fraud Trump University shows that this is a man who has collapsed almost as many enterprises as he started. In Sen. Elizabeth Warren's priceless words:
"Think of Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Trump Magazines, Trump Vodka, Trump Casinos, Trump Mortgage, Trump Games, Trump Travel, the Trump Network, Trump Radio and Trump New Media. Here's a man who builds a business to profit off other peoples' pain. He wants to be Commander in Chief, but he's only qualified to be Fraudster-in-Chief."
Trump is the guy who mocks the disabled; who berates people of other colors, nationalities and religions; who dismisses John McCain as a war hero because - in Trump's caustic words - "he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
This is the guy who challenges the grief of a Gold Star family, who goads his supporters to "punch" hecklers and protesters, who suggests the "Second Amendment people" might act against his opponent Hillary Clinton.
Don't forget the time he looked directly into the television cameras and called for Russia to hack around and find "missing" (not really missing) Hillary Clinton emails. Since when do we want a president asking an unfriendly nation to spy on us?
It is important also to remember the braggart who knows more than our military generals about ISIS, who calls our generals "rubble" and who thinks more highly of Vladimir Putin than of our president.
Maybe that's why, when he rolled out a letter of military endorsements, it was signed by only 88 former military officials - not the 500 retired generals and admirals who penned their names to support Mitt Romney. Hillary Clinton's military brass includes 95 retired generals and admirals - including several four-star generals. Most generals seem to know all they need to know about Donald J. Trump.
Trump is, in fact, a guy who is grossly uninformed. What nuclear triad? Was it the Kurds or the Quds? He's enchanted with the word "sanctions" but he doesn't understand when they are the carrot and when they are the stick. He thinks climate change is a hoax, but he is a ringleader of false conspiracy theories about vaccines causing autism and President Barack Obama's birthplace.
But not to worry. Trump tells us all the time what a great deal maker and negotiator he is. And, hey, we just saw that in action a few days ago when Mr. Know-it-all hopped his plane down to Mexico to share a stage with the president south of the border. Trump came out of that meeting saying one thing and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto came out saying another. Prozac Trump, trying to create appearances that his diplomatic foray went well, said the two didn't discuss the "big beautiful wall" that Trump says Mexico will pay for, but Peña Nieto, as soon as Trump let the door hit his backside, said that was the first thing he told Trump.
"Al inicio de la conversación con Donald Trump dejé claro que México no pagará por el muro," Peña Nieto tweeted.
That means, "At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall."
So - no deal. But when Trump's plane landed in Arizona, he told a fired-up crowd of supporters that the wall would be built, Mexico would pay and undocumented immigrants would be deported. (Of course, his would-be policy of deportation continues to change daily depending on way the wind is blowing. It is all about negotiating the lie of the moment, you understand.)
So even as the days shorten toward Nov. 8, and even as Trump doubles down on his meds, never, ever lose sight of the master showman Donald we've come to know.
Don't let him make you his apprentice.