I disagree with her on Kaepernick, agree with her on flag burning, and agree with her larger point—that there is nothing illegal about either, whatever her preferences, or opinions on their smartness.

I have not read 50 Shades, and do not intend to.

It really is an excellent story for the GOP's embrace of Trump. "This will work… okay he just bit Ryan, but if we're reasonable with him…"

Talk about an impossibly high bar.

I'm seeing two lines of argument today.

Trump's bar for the debate was something like:
Meets expectations: Walk on stage and drops his pants.
Below expectations: Admits this was all a scam with his good friends the Clintons to destroy the Republican party.

"Who are you going to believe, the objective evidence or my gut instincts?" is emerging as a theme this week.

"…that he probably found on Reddit."

After the first debate, someone had a good fallacy—wish I could remember the name, my guesses don't bring it up—to describe the belief that the perfectly-framed question would reveal something about a candidate that people didn't already know. Trump's tape is sticking because it's not like this is a complete…

Lord, when you think of the statements that got poor Jeb! in trouble for weeks at a time, versus what's cool from the acting head of the party…

I refer you to a tweet poll from The Economist (allegedly a serious news magazine) during the first debate, which asked which was more damaging, Trump's incoherent ranting about his birther history or Clinton's overly-smug smile.

This took an embarrassingly long time to gel on Saturday: No, the problem is not that he used lewd language. The problem is that he brags about sexual assault, as something he's owed.

I cannot imagine there is a single voter who would be sincerely surprised by this.

During the first debate, The Economist did a tweet poll of which was worse, Trump's desperate flailing in the birther answer or Clinton looking smug. Which encapsulates a dynamic familiar to many women: Okay, he is hopeless on facts, but is she smiling right?

Sincerely, that was a surprisingly strong moment for him. It was a genuine compliment, it wasn't just echoing what she said, and he didn't sound like he was reading off a note card while Kellyann hovered her finger over the shock collar button. ("Paul Ryan… is apparently a carbon-based organism… in my party…")

His people now have a talking point on the tape, and that talking point is: "That is not sexual assault." Both Conway and Sessions trotted that out today.

Right-wing take: She invaded his space by walking over to each questioning voter, and turning her back on him. Disrespect!

"I'm not saying that, people are saying that" has become a running joke this election, but his people have not been able to get through to him that it is not coming across as a bit of rhetorical jiu jitsu so dazzling it blinds all who behold it. This falls in the same category.

I could have predicted the headline "Trump complains moderators in conspiracy against him, everything unfair" months ago. It's not like any details of reality were going to impinge.