It seems remarkable really - perhaps even astonishing - that with only six weeks until the US Presidential election, Trump and Clinton are neck and neck in the polls. Sure, Clinton is nominally up a couple of points since the first debate, but that in itself must be cause for concern. Even if you don't like or trust Mrs Clinton, there is so much that is disqualifying about Donald Trump that those few percentage points that separate him from his opponent are simply head-scratching.

I get the conservative view point, or a version of it at least. Government is better off smaller, individuals should be empowered, marriage and many other traditional institutions shouldn't be tampered with, taxes should be lower, business unshackled from regulation, and so forth. I may not agree with these and the raft of other choices that are usually offered, but I still think that these are defensible positions.

Trump is incoherent, childish, inconsistent, rude, dangerously populist and (please insert a string of negative qualities here). He may well be inept. I cannot understand how a serious Republican could make such a choice, even if they loath the alternative.

Charming. Would even John Falstaff drink with this man?