Tacking to the “center” for November is almost as well-understood a ritual as the balloon drop, dissing urban culture, and eating cheese steak in Philadelphia.  We’re all waiting for it. Sanders supporters are waiting to see whether HRC tacks to the comfortable center-right of her political career.  And Trump . . .

Well, Trump has been doing something since Florida, when he first talked about being a “uniter” and told us he’ll soon be “so presidential” “we won’t believe it”, in fact “be bored” by his statesmanship.

What’s interesting to me is how public the makeover has become.  Think back to the 90s when reporters discovered conversations and memos about Hillary changing her hair, figuring out her name, and deciding what kind of adoring looks to give her husband.  Or when Dukakis played catch in front of his house with a Red Sox player. It was all supposed to be quiet, private, and unconsidered.  We were mildly scandalized when we discovered there were strategic conversations about such things.

Today, we have Trump’s makeover consultant, Paul Manafort, not simply being visible in the campaign organization, but publicly describing how he plans to make Trump unrecognizable and eschew “the part he’s been playing.”  (A few days later, Trump indicated that he wasn’t planning to tone down anything.  So there’s that extra layer to watch.)

My personal prediction, buried in a comment here, I think, is that Trump will have a meltdown at some point between debates with HRC.  It unfolds like this:

1. Debate prep:  Trump accepts that he needs it and he tolerates a room full of people suggesting things that his own mind doesn’t.  Blood pressure rises.
2. Campaigning:  Days on end of answering hard follow-up questions from people who give endorsements rather than boost ratings.  Stress levels rise, Trump has moments of not seeing straight.
3. More debate prep: for the first time in his life, things don’t come easily to him, and people tell him so.  He considers firing everybody and resuming private consults with his own mind.  Then he realizes, for the first time in his life, that not everything he needs comes from his real estate persona and just leaves the room.
4. Loop  2 + 3, until…
5. Trump is in an editorial room, feeling the heat, having no easy outs for questions he avoid during debates and rallies. An annoying editor in an off-the-shelf suit and with ink on his fingers keeps pushing him.
6. Trump explodes and punches a staff person or an editor.

I don’t think it’s fanciful.  He seems exactly the right temperament for a meltdown and hasn’t developed the rhinoceros hide any politician who’s been in more than a few battles has.  I admit, though, that it’s more likely that 6 transpires as a series of unfortunate outbursts on a rope line, or an epically bad moment in a “rigged” debate – either of which runs endlessly on the news for a week and forever and re-mixed ever on the internet.

This is all a rambling way of saying I’m intrigued by the upcoming psychic makeover show. “Watch as a wealthy celebrity jumps into politics as a lark and … starts winning!  Playing catch-up, he teams up the best shrink to help him grow, and quickly!  Tune in and watch the mogul in his quest to learn self-restraint, form a million opinions on things he doesn’t care about, find a way to talk to people in small groups, and remake himself into  something “boring”, Presidential, and terrific at the same time.  Will this 21st century Odd Couple end up together at the inauguration or in a lawsuit?  Find out Thursday night.”