Hey! Anyone remember how Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each released competing economic plans this week and how they were parsed and seriously considered as if someone had just stumbled across a first draft of a the Bible?

Yeah ... me neither.

On Monday - remember Monday? It seems like 1897 now - Trump was supposed to pivot away from his trademark crackpottery to make a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on his plans to revitalize the economy and to create jobs.

And he actually did deliver the speech. And there was stuff in there worth listening to about jobs and taxes and trade and infrastructure other economic doohickeys.

But then Trump, being Trump, promptly returned to the topic he enjoys discussing most: Donald J. Trump.

In Wilmington, N.C. on Tuesday, it what some took as provocation of violence, he malevolently speculated that the "Second Amendment" people could stop a putative President Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices partial to gun-control.

In the firestorm that followed, Trump tried and failed to walk back his remarks, claiming that he was talking about gun-rights voters organizing to defeat Clinton in November, which was pure nonsense and not supported by his own statement.

That was followed Thursday by another destructively absurd and baseless claim that Clinton and President Barack Obama were "literally" the founders of ISIS, and, in fact deserved "MVP" status for their contributions to the extremist group.

After a day spent doubling-down on his claim, Trump walked it back on Friday in a Tweet, where, without apology, he lodged the caps-lock complaint that his genius was misunderstood:

Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) "the founder" of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON'T GET SARCASM? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016

The unfortunate thing is that there is a serious conversation to be had about the Obama administration policy failures that allowed ISIS to initially flourish in the tatters of what passes for Iraq and Syria, and its subsequent global expansion.

But Trump isn't serious-minded enough for that kind of conversation. Even if you bring him to water, as conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt gamely tried to do, you cannot make him think.

In an interview Thursday, Hewitt not only opened the door for Trump to walk back his remarks, he also tried to kick him through it.

"I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace," Hewitt said.

Kneecapping his claim of sarcasm, Trump shot back: "No, I meant he's the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton."

Hewitt parried, "But he's not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He's trying to kill them."

Undeterred, Trump stayed on-message, "I don't care. He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?"

And so it goes.

That Trump is a first-rate narcissist isn't in question. But he either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the damage it's doing to his candidacy.

He's now trailing Clinton in several, major battleground states, including Pennsylvania. And he now trails nationwide by an average of 6 percent, according to Real Clear Politics.

And Clinton was the beneficiary because the Trump Circus drowned out the damaging revelation that Clinton Foundation donors got access to Hillary Clinton's State Department.

That's kind of a big deal. And in a normal election, it would devour all the campaign-related oxygen -- the same oxygen that's instead devoured by Trump's rampaging ego.

But back to the economy again - yeah, that old thing, the issue that voters say is among the most important to them.

Now that Clinton and Trump have each released their economic plans, we have policies to compare and contrast.

Clinton, for instance, would reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement she backed while Secretary of State, which puts her theoretically onside with Trump, though the ideology guiding their respective positions could not be more different.

And despite his embrace of middle- and working-class voters (mostly white and male), Trump's tax plan would accrue substantially to the benefit of the wealthy businessmen he hangs out with in his spare time.

Who knew?

If Donald Trump wants the "dishonest" media to "report the facts" as he caviled on Twitter on Friday morning, he could start by remembering the election is about the country and the voters - not his insatiable need for attention.