Axelrod: Can new team cure what Ailes Trump?

Editor’s Note: David Axelrod is CNN’s senior political commentator and host of the podcast “The Axe Files.” He was senior adviser to President Barack Obama and chief strategist for the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

About a half century ago, a journeyman ballplayer named Rocky Bridges made his debut as the manager of the San Jose Bees, a desultory California League team.

The day was marred, however, when the hapless Bees missed signs, dropped balls and were generally routed.

“I managed good,” a frustrated Bridges recalled in a Sports Illustrated profile, “but boy did they play bad.”

All of this is to say: good luck to Donald Trump’s new managers.

Trapped in what appears to be a political death spiral, the bilious billionaire has once again shuffled his leadership team.

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Updated 6:42 PM EDT, Wed August 17, 2016

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Trump campaign undergoes major overhaul

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Paul Manafort, a veteran political operative who took over in the spring from the loyal but volatile Corey Lewandowski, apparently has been shoved aside for a new ruling junta.

We’re told that Manafort will also be part of the junta. But having been an adviser to deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Philippines strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Manafort surely recognizes a coup when he sees one.

In fact, a new public focus on his role with Yanukovych, a Kremlin-favorite now in exile in Russia, may have sealed Manafort’s destiny in Trump’s orbit.

The Courtroom of the Supreme Court showing Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's Bench Chair and the Bench in front of his seat draped in black following his death on February 13, 2016.

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But in fairness, Trump’s precipitous slide in the polls since the conventions in July could hardly be blamed on the manager.

Hours after the gavel fell at the Democratic convention, Trump kicked off a dizzying 10-day spasm of off-the-wall comments and tweets that seemed to confirm the thesis advanced by the Democrats in Philly: He’s not ready for the nuclear codes.

Here is a partial list of Trump’s greatest post-convention hits: Attacking a Gold Star family who appeared at the Democratic convention; dissing House speaker Paul Ryan before reversing course and endorsing him; trying to kick a crying baby out of a rally; muffing questions on Russia’s occupation of Crimea; joking about winning the Purple Heart the easy way; suggesting the election might be “rigged;” and calling Hillary Clinton “the devil.”

President-elect Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for years. From developing real estate and producing and starring in TV shows, he became a celebrity long before winning the White House.

Trump at age 4. He was born in 1946 to Fred and Mary Trump in New York City. His father was a real estate developer.

Trump, left, in a family photo. He was the second-youngest of five children.

Trump, center, stands at attention during his senior year at the New York Military Academy in 1964.

Trump, center, wears a baseball uniform at the New York Military Academy in 1964. After he graduated from the boarding school, he went to college. He started at Fordham University before transferring and later graduating from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school.

Trump stands with Alfred Eisenpreis, New York's economic development administrator, in 1976 while they look at a sketch of a new 1,400-room renovation project of the Commodore Hotel. After graduating college in 1968, Trump worked with his father on developments in Queens and Brooklyn before purchasing or building multiple properties in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Those properties included Trump Tower in New York and Trump Plaza and multiple casinos in Atlantic City.

Trump attends an event to mark the start of construction of the New York Convention Center in 1979.

Trump wears a hard hat at the Trump Tower construction site in New York in 1980.

Trump was married to Ivana Zelnicek Trump from 1977 to 1990, when they divorced. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.

The Trump family, circa 1986.

Trump uses his personal helicopter to get around New York in 1987.

Trump stands in the atrium of the Trump Tower.

Trump attends the opening of his new Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1989.

Trump signs his second book, "Trump: Surviving at the Top," in 1990. Trump has published at least 16 other books, including "The Art of the Deal" and "The America We Deserve."

Trump and singer Michael Jackson pose for a photo before traveling to visit Ryan White, a young child with AIDS, in 1990.

Trump dips his second wife, Marla Maples, after the couple married in a private ceremony in New York in December 1993. The couple divorced in 1999 and had one daughter together, Tiffany.

Trump putts a golf ball in his New York office in 1998.

An advertisement for the television show "The Apprentice" hangs at Trump Tower in 2004. The show launched in January of that year. In January 2008, the show returned as "Celebrity Apprentice."

A 12-inch talking Trump doll is on display at a toy store in New York in September 2004.

Trump attends a news conference in 2005 that announced the establishment of Trump University. From 2005 until it closed in 2010, Trump University had about 10,000 people sign up for a program that promised success in real estate. Three separate lawsuits -- two class-action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general -- argued that the program was mired in fraud and deception. Trump's camp rejected the suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that the New York case against him is politically motivated.

Trump attends the U.S. Open tennis tournament with his third wife, Melania Knauss-Trump, and their son, Barron, in 2006. Trump and Knauss married in 2005.

Trump wrestles with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania in 2007. Trump has close ties with the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon.

For "The Apprentice," Trump was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2007.

Trump appears on the set of "The Celebrity Apprentice" with two of his children -- Donald Jr. and Ivanka -- in 2009.

Trump poses with Miss Universe contestants in 2011. Trump had been executive producer of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants since 1996.

In 2012, Trump announces his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Trump speaks in Sarasota, Florida, after accepting the Statesman of the Year Award at the Sarasota GOP dinner in August 2012. It was shortly before the Republican National Convention in nearby Tampa.

Trump appears on stage with singer Nick Jonas and television personality Giuliana Rancic during the 2013 Miss USA pageant.

In June 2015, during a speech from Trump Tower, Trump announced that he was running for President. He said he would give up "The Apprentice" to run.

Trump -- flanked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, left, and Ted Cruz -- speaks during a CNN debate in Miami on March 10. Trump dominated the GOP primaries and emerged as the presumptive nominee in May.

The Trump family poses for a photo in New York in April.

Trump speaks during a campaign event in Evansville, Indiana, on April 28. After Trump won the Indiana primary, his last two competitors dropped out of the GOP race.

Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, accepting the party's nomination for President. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people."

Trump faces Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, which took place in Hempstead, New York, in September.

Trump apologizes in a video, posted to his Twitter account in October, for vulgar and sexually aggressive remarks he made a decade ago regarding women. "I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, referring to lewd comments he made during a previously unaired taping of "Access Hollywood." Multiple Republican leaders rescinded their endorsements of Trump after the footage was released.

Trump walks on stage with his family after he was declared the election winner on November 9. "Ours was not a campaign, but rather, an incredible and great movement," he told his supporters in New York.

Trump is joined by his family as he is sworn in as President on January 20.

Donald Trump's rise

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I am certain that none of this came at the suggestion of Paul Manafort, though Manafort gamely defended his man in the ensuing uproar. But there really was no adequate defense.

Attempts by the campaign to tether Trump to a TelePrompTer and script provided only intermittent relief. Arming him with charts to discipline his presentations also failed.

Trump’s appalling distemper following a well-executed Democratic convention transformed what had been, at least in polling, a relatively close race.

White, college educated voters – a group Mitt Romney carried by 12 points in 2012 – now give Clinton a sizable edge. Having walled himself off from the minority voters who will comprise some 30% of the electorate, Trump can ill afford that loss.

As a result, Clinton has opened wide leads in many critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania, that Trump must win to traverse his already narrow path to 270 electoral votes.

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This is why credible forecasting models now give Trump, a self-proclaimed habitual winner, just a one-in-ten chance of winning the presidency.

Now he has brought in a new management team, led by Stephen Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs banker and chairman of Breitbart News. Bannon has never run a campaign at any level, much less one for president, which is a highly complex and specialized challenge.

His new governing partner, Kellyanne Conway, has extensive campaign experience – but as a pollster, not a manager.

Trump also reportedly is consulting Roger Ailes, the former CEO of Fox News who was recently forced out amid sexual harassment charges, to help coach him for the impending presidential debates.

Ailes is what the other new additions are not.

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Updated 6:42 PM EDT, Wed August 17, 2016

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Trump Jr. on whether Roger Ailes will run father's campaign

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A wily and combative veteran of presidential campaigns dating back to Nixon, he was the architect of George H.W. Bush’s historic comeback from a 17-point deficit in the summer of 1988 to a landslide electoral victory in the fall.

The brutal, negative ad campaign Ailes ran against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis remains a classic of political advertising.

Ailes knows campaigns, television and presidential debates, which could be an asset to Trump. Stellar debate performances may now be his only chance.

But that would presume the candidate’s ability to listen, work, study, internalize and execute, a capacity we have not seen in this campaign.

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump, Steve Bannon

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The presence of Ailes, whose edgy television channel became a rallying point for conservatives, and Bannon, whose right-wing news website is also notoriously pugilistic, portends a bloody fall campaign. And in the ever-combative Trump, they will find a willing deliverer of missiles.

The question with Trump is always, where will they land?

Even if Trump were adding the greatest political team in history, which he is not, the problem is not the campaign. The problem is the candidate, whose allergy to substance and impulse to react angrily – and often tastelessly – to any provocation has unnerved voters.

In the primaries, his “shoot first, ask questions later” style was enough to ignite his base, but that very quality has become a liability now that he has to expand beyond it.

Maybe “Trump Team Three” has the magic elixir.

More likely, however, they will be left shaking their heads like old Rocky Bridges as they watch their candidate play.

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