Let's imagine for a moment that you are Donald Trump, right now, today.
Alright, that may be an extraordinarily difficult task for many of you, but let's use our imaginations.
So you, Donald Trump, are coming out of what has been a very bad week.
With the Democratic National Convention only a week in the rear view mirror, this is the time when you, as the Republican nominee for president, need to be honing your message against your opponent, Hillary Clinton, and going on the offense against her on a raft of potential issues.
Instead what have you done over the past week?
Well, you have picked a fight with the Muslim parents of U.S. Army Capt. Humayn Khan, who died in Iraq trying to save soldiers under his command. The fallen soldier's father, Khizr Khan, fileted Trump from the stage of Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention; and Trump didn't much like it.
He found out that attacking the motives of Gold Star families – families who have lost sons and daughters in uniform, who died defending this country – is not a smart idea.
Then he offended a whole host of Purple Heart recipients – military men and women who have earned that venerated medal by shedding blood in combat. On Tuesday, at a campaign stop in Virginia, a Trump supporter who was a Purple Heart recipient gave the candidate the medal he had earned in combat. "I always wanted to get the Purple Heart,'' said Trump, who received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War. "This was much easier."
Purple Heart medals, those who have earned them said, are not something military people want – they are acknowledgments of sacrifice in combat, up to and including being killed in action.
And, in a media interview, he refused to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain, both of whom are in GOP primary contests. That didn't go over well with the Republican party leadership. Then, on Friday, Trump reversed course and, at a Wisconsin rally, endorsed both Ryan and McCain.
Then, in another rather bizarre episode that took up much of Wednesday's news cycle, Trump had a crying baby kicked out of a Virginia rally.
Not really the kind of publicity you are looking for when, in a Fox News poll that came out Wednesday, you are trailing Clinton by 10 percentage points.
This despite that fact the same poll said that 61 percent of American voters believe Clinton is dishonest. That's the good news for Trump. The bad news is that majorities say Clinton is qualified to be president, while over half say Trump is not. And 62 percent said Trump is dishonest.
What we have here, it would seem, is a contest between the two most disliked political figures in the country.
The general consensus is that Trump made a hash out of a week when he should have been making hay.
Big-name GOP figures from Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have expressed their frustration at how Trump has behaved lately. Other GOP elected officials and party leaders have flat out said they have no intention of voting for Trump.
The last two Republican presidents, George W. and George H.W. Bush, have been absolutely silent on the subject of Trump, not attending the GOP convention two weeks ago in Cleveland. Nor did McCain, the 2008 nominee, nor the 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney.
And closer to home? Well, Sen. Rob Portman has endorsed him, but he spent the entire convention week in Cleveland as far away from Trump as possible. Portman didn't show up at Trump's Tuesday rally in Columbus – he had an excuse; he was out touring the state touting his legislation on opioid abuse.
And Gov. John Kasich? Forget about it. A former rival for the GOP nomination, not only has refused to endorse Trump, but he wouldn't set foot in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena during the convention, even though he was host governor.
Kasich was incensed about Trump's running battle with the Khan family.
"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents,'' Kasich tweeted. "With honor and respect. Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family."
In Hamilton County – a very important swing county in a very important swing state - GOP chairman Alex Triantafilou supported Kasich during the primary, but, after Trump won the nomination, Triantafilou said he was "all in" for Trump.
Triantafilou, though, is among those Republicans who believe Trump has to quit with the distractions and get on with a real campaign.
"The 'wrong track' numbers for this administration are so bad that this is an opportunity,'' Triantafilou told WVXU Thursday.
If a majority of Americans say the country is on the wrong track, Triantafilou said, they are not likely to want Hillary Clinton in the White House for what would amount to a third Obama administration."
As far as Trump's recent missteps are concerned, Triantafilou said it is unfortunate that he is coming out of the gate with distractions of his own making.
"Do we wish it had gone better?,'' Triantafilou said. "Of course we do.
"Donald Trump is new at this,'' Triantafilou said. "We're watching a new candidate develop. It's bound to be rough."
But, later on Thursday, Triantafilou put up a post on Facebook about a meeting he had that day with Trump's Ohio campaign people.
"We met with Trump team,'' Triantafilou wrote. "A highly professional team is in place. Totally energized."
Barry Bennett, an Ohioan who is a top Republican political strategist in Washington, told WVXU that there are "not a lot of days left to work with" for the Trump campaign.
"We can't waste one of them,'' said Bennett, a former adviser to the Trump campaign. "If I were Donald Trump, I wouldn't waste 10 seconds on this stuff, picking fights with people.
"He has to stick a message and the message is three-fold,'' Bennett said. "People are in pain. America is under assault. And the government is wasteful."
For Trump, "it's a discipline issue, not a message issue," Bennett said. "All he has to do is say one thing that you want to be the news of the day. You have to stop these distractions. Stop. Just stop."
"I would love to see him do a tour talking to Americans who are in pain,'' Bennett said. "I would identify a family in Youngstown that is struggling in economy and spend the night in their home. Take them out to dinner at Wendy's.
"He can do this; he really can,'' Bennett said."Despite his personal wealth, he can identify with people who are suffering. And you aren't going to win by just attacking Hillary."
Mack Mariani, associate professor and chair of the political science department at Xavier University, said every campaign is going to have the kind of "blips" that Trump has experienced recently. They come and they go and the campaign moves on, Mariani said.
"But this is more than a blip,'' Mariani said. "It reinforces the argument that Donald Trump does not have the temperament to be president.
"It freezes up the big donors and the politicians who were inching their way toward supporting him,'' Mariani said. "The politicians who support Trump end up having to answer for what Trump says and does. And that's the last thing they want to do."
The week that Trump had, Mariani said, "has to be looked at through the prism of temperament."
It's too soon to say if this is a fatal flaw for Trump, Mariani said, because Clinton and the Democrats have problems of their own. And Trump could change his ways.
"But if it is temperament that ends up deciding this election,'' Mariani said, "Trump loses."
