An American thriller with far-reaching consequences

What everyone was afraid of and talked about behind closed doors ended up happening on Thursday night. No one could tell if it would come in the form of a stumble on the steps of Air Force One or a terrible interview. It happened, after all, in the TV debate with millions of Democrats looking on with anxiety and hope that their candidate would succeed; what they saw, instead, was a catastrophic appearance and panic.

It was no secret in Washington that the party holies - Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi etc - were worried and were exploring a Plan B. It was too late. The first obstacle was to overcome the president's ego, a man who had been reaching for the highest office of the land for decades. He always thought history had been unfair to him and that he was paying for the fact that he did not hail from the ranks of the American Ivy League elite. He also believed...