August 09, 2015 02:55 PM UTC

Trump's War on Women, Etc. Rolls On

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports, for those who have the intestinal fortitude to watch:

Donald Trump gave no ground on Sunday, insisting his crude remarks appearing to imply Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she questioned him during the first Republican presidential debate were anything but.

Three weeks after two of his rivals demanded he quit the race for the GOP presidential nomination and three days after a record 24 million viewers tuned into the GOP debate in Cleveland that many establishment Republicans predicted might be the beginning of the end for him, Trump is still center stage…

“I said nothing wrong whatsoever,” Trump declared on CNN’s “State of the Union” two days after he had said of Kelly on CNN: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever.”

During Thursday night’s debate, Donald Trump’s not just willingness, but eagerness to crack wise about the encyclopedia of distasteful things he has said about various women over the years–and yes, it’s been about many more women than Rosie O’Donnell–was almost transfixing in its gossip-show audacity. We suppose Trump could have smashed somebody over the head with a chair Geraldo style to make it even more memorable but that’s about it. Trump’s arrogant boardroom brashness never faltered once, and it was magnificent like watching Hannibal Lecter feed that guy his own brain.

And apparently, the viewers loved it:

Post-Debate Poll (NBC) Trump 23% Cruz 13% Carson 11% Fiorina 8% Rubio 8% Bush 7% Walker 7% That’s quite a 1, 2, 3…

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 9, 2015

At least for the time being, Trump’s catch-all defense against the charge of being a sexist blowhard that “the nation has no time for political correctness” is carrying him in the polls–even further ingratiating him to a not-insubstantial percentage of voters who are themselves…you know, politically incorrect too, and are ecstatic that somebody is finally out there in the headlines giving “the skirts” and “the Mexicans” what for.

For Republicans interested in winning the upcoming general election in November of 2016 instead of merely gratifying the pissed-off white fortysomething closeted sexist bigot demographic for TV ratings purposes, every day that Trump continues to stink up the GOP brand is a new disaster.

But try telling that to him or the people cheering him on. Go ahead, then tell us what they say.