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When Donald Trump's lead widened in July, the brilliant Democratic operative James Carville called for Joe Biden to quit his re-election bid and quipped: "The country wants something new. Let them have it." Democrats heeded that advice, and now, just a month or so later, Trump is trailing in most polls. Politics sure can turn on a dime.

But this shouldn't be the case. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a political bellwether that should spell defeat for an incumbent or a top deputy like Vice President Kamala Harris. And polls show voters trust Republicans over Democrats on the key issues of the economy, inflation, jobs and crime. Democrats, including both Harris and Tim Walz, were also strident in their dishonesty when they repeatedly assured us that Biden was mentally fit for another term; their credibility is shot. The GOP nominee should be running away with this race. Why isn't he?

To be sure, Democrats deserve credit for putting on a magnificent convention last month. It was uplifting, optimistic and patriotic — things that have always played well with voters. And Harris is a gifted politician with a compelling life story and likable family.

Republicans also face unfair headwinds. Democrats invested the weeklong national spotlight in Chicago on knocking the Republican ticket hard. The GOP was robbed of the opportunity to do the same in Milwaukee since their opponent then was not the one they face now. And conservative messaging is and always has been difficult with the flagrant bias in much of the mainstream media for Democratic politicians and ideas. Harris is also the most unchallenged candidate ever to top a presidential ticket by hop-skipping over the normally bruising primary process and not even granting one single interview or news conference to explain her rationale for running prior to her precipitous ascension. It's no wonder a candidate unscathed by such scrutiny is polling well.

But the cold hard truth is also that Donald Trump isn't winning this winnable race because of Donald Trump, an undisciplined, erratic and pretty unpopular guy. While his administration was in many respects wildly successful, Americans don't want a return to the chaos and disunity he promoted when he was in the White House, or a continuation of the partisan divisiveness that his successor has contributed to. Most voters — me included — want steadiness back at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

If Trump can convince the electorate that a second Trump presidency won't look like the first in terms of temperament and demeanor, he could take the lead in this race again.

A substantive way to do that would be for him to announce his prospective cabinet now. Administrations function in large part by the department secretaries the president appoints, and they have tremendous power to shape the character and agenda of a presidency. Potential Trump appointments should include former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as secretary of state and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as secretary of commerce. Never-Trump Republicans and even Democrats should also be invited onboard. By showing the American people that he will surround himself with and defer power to serious and strong leaders, even those that were once his rivals, Trump will evince that his White House would promote healthy presidential pushback and that his second term will be more sober and focused than the first.

He should also pledge not to have any Trump family members or goofball buddies on the White House staff. No one wants his ill-equipped sons Don Jr. or Eric in the West Wing or unqualified Trump cronies like the MyPillow guy in important federal posts. His second administration should be laser focused on staffing solely for competence and loyalty to the country and the Constitution, not for nepotism or fealty to Trump himself.

And if Harris can perform a total political rebrand, as Walz certainly has multiple times, why can't Trump?

He can start by ditching the name calling. Not only is it unseemly, but it's tired. That playbook may have worked eight years ago, but it doesn't now. He also needs to knock off his reckless election denialism and Jan. 6 demagoguery. Enough is enough with that garbage, and Trump should disavow it.

Trump instead would be wise to lock into a substantive conversation with the American people on policy. Now that's a winner of a topic for him. Voters want a smaller and more efficient federal government and a return to fiscal responsibility — and the economic benefits that come with those things. They know weak foreign policy has made the world more dangerous and that Democrats' feckless approach to crime has left American cities less safe.

Trump should pen a commentary for each of the major ten U.S. newspapers, which would include this one, detailing his position on each of the top issues facing voters this election: inflation, illegal border crossings, health care, jobs and the economy, abortion, the environment and climate change, crime, foreign policy, taxes and government spending, and federal entitlements. That kind of detailed transparency would show courage and intellectual heft — and draw quite a contrast to the vacuous Harris-Walz campaign, which cannot even cobble together enough substance to post policy statements on their website.

As readers of this opinion section know, I have never been a fan of the often-brutish Trump or the unnecessary electoral losses his style of politics has rendered unto the conservative cause. I aggressively supported his primary opponents both in 2016 and 2024 with no regrets. That said, Harris has made clear if elected in November that she will take this country perhaps irretrievably further left than where we are today. That frightens me — and many others. But so does Trump's historically undisciplined demeanor, which creates skittishness for many of us at the thought of returning him to the Oval Office.

In the remaining days of this campaign, Trump must show that he can be a measured and issues-oriented candidate — a different kind of commander in chief than he was before and that the country wants. If he cannot, Republicans are yet again likely to lose a critical national election that should have been won, with serious public policy consequences for our country that will extend on for generations. And Trump will have no one to blame but himself for that.