A president has to possess the power of diplomacy. If he were elected, then at some point he’d have to speak with others who are also CEO’s, union leaders, presidents, prime-ministers…important, intelligent and knowledgeable people of all kinds.

For these people, trivial name calling will only deter further discussions and dilute any respect that Trump might garner.

Important skills for anyone in this position are (a) thinking carefully about the consequences *before* you open your mouth, (b) being consistent, (c) being knowledgeable.

Trump demonstrably fails in all three regards — not just once or twice — but multiple times in every speech he makes. There are endless lists of occasions where he has failed in all three respects here are a few from the last couple of weeks alone:

THINK BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH: Do not insult the parents of a fallen soldier — because parents of fallen vets are revered by the general public — so there are consequences to that. Do not claim to have seen a secret video that doesn’t exist — because people are going to check on your claim (and if it truly was “SECRET” then you could go to jail for saying it).

BE CONSISTENT: Do not promise to increase the minimum wage in the same speech in which you promise to abolish the minimum wage — because that makes you look like an idiot. Do not claim to be a close buddy of Putin and then claim to have had nothing to do with him — because that proves conclusively that you are a bare faced liar…which is not the best strategy if you wish to label your opponent as a bare faced liar!

BE KNOWLEDGEABLE: Do not claim that your opponent says that she’ll “raise taxes on the middle class” when in fact she has never once said that. Do not claim to be beating Kelly Ayotte in NH polls when you’re actually about 10 points behind. Do not claim that “youth unemployment is through the roof” when that number reached a peak 6 years ago and is on a steady and consistent downward trend.

There are plenty of things that really are going downhill that you can complain about — just be knowledgeable enough to pick those that are true rather than guessing and hoping that nobody will notice, pick something that you won’t have to flip-flop about and pick something that won’t offend large sections of your key demographic.