This is how Donald Trump began his speech on Wednesday night.

"Tonight is not going to be a normal rally speech. Instead, I am going to deliver a detailed policy address on one of the greatest challenges facing our country today: immigration."

Whew. I'm glad he told us that. If that was a detailed policy address, I'd have hated to see the rally speech. He'd have biting the heads off live chickens by the third paragraph.

Quite simply, for almost 98 minutes, the presidential candidate of one of our two major political parties did a very convincing imitation of someone who should not be allowed out in public without a keeper, and whose keeper should not be allowed anywhere near him without a net, sufficient backup, and a tranquilizer gun capable of inducing coma in a herd of drunken elephants.

Again, this was the only story to be covered on Wednesday night. It obliterated the earlier dog-and-pony show in Mexico. It made a jackass out of every member of the media who ever has used the word "presidential" in any connection with El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, and particularly those members of the media who got played for suckers on Wednesday afternoon.

They were still looking for the pea under the shells even after the televised mania in Arizona was over. It was being argued that Trump had "moderated" his stance on rounding folks up, which he certainly had not, unless you consider changing "deportation force" to "deportation task force" a triumph for policy nuance. MSNBC decided that what was required was the cogent analysis of Bill Kristol and Hugh Hewitt. Meanwhile, CNN continued its rapid descent into the bail-bonds business by allowing Trump employee Corey Lewandowski back on its air. The New York Times rearranged its misinterpretation of events until nobody there seemed to know what was going on.

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What a day of Trump. Early and late editions of the Wall Street Journal front page: pic.twitter.com/rplpbrIumz — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 1, 2016

Once again, confronted with an authoritarian loon showing his brightly painted ass to the world, the elite political media proved utterly incapable of conveying to the nation what the nation could plainly see for itself. Journalism is flummoxing itself because it is incapable of confronting what it must confront.

Here's the whole speech. Judge for yourselves. I'll be back after I make sure they've fireproofed the Reichstag.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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