Trump's Personality is Hands-Down Unpresidential

And here is the revealing part of Trump: He is not just a "counterpuncher," as he tells us, he is a compulsive counterpuncher. Not only can he not refrain in the moment -- he cannot see another alternative in the cooling bath of hindsight.

"I had to do it," he says, of responding to Rubio. "So, he started it." Supporters were talking, Trump says, worrying about deformities. "I did this because everybody was saying to me, 'Oh, your hands are very nice. They are normal.'"

Marcus: "You chose to raise it ... "

Trump: "No, I chose to respond."

Marcus: "You chose to respond."

Trump: "I had no choice."

Marcus: "You chose to raise it during a debate. Can you explain why you had no choice?"

Trump: "I don't want people to go around thinking that I have a problem."

This went on until Hiatt, sounding somewhat exasperated, most likely with me, cut it off: "OK, let's move on here. Let's move on."

If only.

You could argue that we should have drilled down more. One topic we didn't manage to get in: How Trump would balance the tension inherent in his lament about the size of the debt, the sorry state of America's infrastructure -- and the proposal for a $10 trillion tax cut.

You'd be right, of course. Trump is the master of deflection, and the media's concentration on the Trump outrage du jour serves to protect him from searching inquiry.

We tried to remedy that. But the hands discussion was illuminating, because presidential character is as important as presidential intellect and preparation. Being presidential doesn't only mean winning. It means being in control of your responses, being measured in how you deal with opponents, foreign and domestic.

Trump's personality -- you don't have to deduce this; he has told us -- is such that he cannot allow an insult to go unrebutted. In a potential president, this trait is as scary as any of Trump's substantive flaws.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.