in•co•her•ent (ĭnˌkō-hîrˈənt)

• adj.
  Lacking cohesion, connection, or harmony; not coherent: incoherent fragments of a story.
• adj.
  Unable to think or express one’s thoughts in a clear or orderly manner: incoherent with grief.

(Courtesy of Wordnik.)

It’s the only word that adequately describes Trump’s behavior last night. I’m not the only one using it, either.

Incoherent.

Salon.com: Trump’s incoherent greatest hits: His stream-of-nonsense debate style is tough to combat When Trump wasn’t name-calling during the GOP debates, his rhetoric was nonsensical — but difficult to rebut VIDEO

the quint: Presidential Debate Exposes Trump as a Sexist & Incoherent Bigot

Vox.com: The first debate featured an unprepared man repeatedly shouting over a highly prepared woman

This quote, from FastCompany.com is particularly telling:

After the debate, in the media spin room, Trump sought to explain some of his incoherent answers by claiming that his debate microphone was “defective” and wondering if it was “on purpose.”

Conspiracy theory? Yeah, sure, Mr. Trump. We believe you. It must be someone else’s fault that you didn’t do your homework.

Ugh!

And then there’s the misogyny on parade, the refusal to acknowledge that video SHOWS him saying things, that Twitter comments HE MADE are out there.

It’s like he thinks he can just erase the past and it will never have happened. Fortunately for us, at the moment, that only happens in books.

Here’s just some of the many debate analysis sites from last night’s event:

The Hill: Pundits react: Clinton won first debate

NBC News: Decision 2016: The Presidential Debates

USA Today: Clinton got interrupted how many times? Debate night by the numbers

New York Times: By the Numbers: Butting In, and Going On, Trump Dominates

But here’s the real kicker:

NY Magazine: Hillary Clinton Won the First Debate. What If That Doesn’t Move the Polls?

That’s right. What if it doesn’t matter HOW incoherent Donald Trump is in debates? What if the people who won’t vote for Clinton because of all the lies, all the smoke and mirrors from the Right, all the absolute bullshit that Clinton conspiracy theorists have put out as truth for so very long win the game by installing this hot mess of a candidate?

This is the guy the Right wants to put in the Oval Office.

This guy.

This bully, who thinks he can get away with rewriting history with impunity.

Sure, they’ll have to live with themselves if that happens, and maybe they can justify away the reality and truth the way they did in 2000, but they will be lying to themselves.

I mean, what’s one more lie among friends, really?

In the age of post-truth journalism, we can only hope the loudest mouth isn’t the one who wins.