The highly personal tone of charge and countercharge in Sunday's debate was necessary due to the huge impact of the Donald Trump dirty-talk tape over the weekend. But now Trump must pivot to issue ideas that demonstrate why he should be president.

Trump's debate performance was excellent. He articulated the email issue very well, drew the comparison between his words and Hillary Clinton's depredations against the women who were Bill's alleged victims.

But when the debate turned to Obamacare, he really scored points by hammering away at the deficiencies of the program. Now he must continue in that vein.

If he gets mired in the more familiar and sensational turf of sexual charges one way or the other, he will lose his chance to win. It's time for issues and positive proposals.

Trump has dug himself not just into a hole but into a potential grave. The NBC/WSJ poll has him 14 behind in a two-way and 11 back in a four-way race. Rasmussen polls, which I trust the most, has Trump falling from minus one to minus seven over this disastrous weekend.

But beneath the carnage, he has one redeeming feature: Donald Trump has persuaded America that he is the candidate of change and that Hillary Clinton is the equivalent of President Obama's third term. Now he must articulate of what that change consists while he has our attention.