1. It’s Tuesday, September 27, 2016. The election is 42 days away.

2. I wanted Hillary Clinton to act like a President of the United States. Someone who someday will fit nicely on one of those diner placemats with pictures of the 43 guys who preceded her.

She delivered. Big.

Or, as her opponent would say, “bigly.”

Clinton needed to have a command of facts. Check.

Clinton needed to respond to Trump’s attacks. Check.

Clinton needed to look calm and unruffled. She needed to seem as though she was listening to what Trump was saying. Check.

Are there things she could have done better? Sure. Contrary to what post-debate analysts said, I wanted a stronger response to the birther question. I thought there were times when she was calculating whether or not she should cut off Trump’s long-winded rants or just let him draw enough rope to hang himself.

But she was great. She proved she is ready to lead. She did her preparation – which Trump tried to make sound like a bad thing, for some stupid reason. She seemed healthy after her bout with pneumonia – Trump, on the other hand, kept sniffling as if he had a cold.

If that woman can’t be seen as a commander-in-chief, this country deserves the reckoning it will reap.

3. On the other hand:

If you don’t believe the leader of free world should speak in coherent, complete sentences.

If you think a guy who keeps sniping at his opponent when she’s an answering a question is showing some sort of leadership.

If you think a guy who just about bragged about not paying taxes should be able to do that.

If you think the hacker who got into the DNC files was a 400-pound kid on his bed and not the Russians, and that the information he got should be exploited.

If you think Rosie O’Donnell is someone more worthy of badmouthing than Vladimir Putin.

If you think a father shouldn’t be more concerned about monitoring his 10-year-old son’s computer activity.

If you think it’s doing a kindness of some kind to not bring up your opponent’s husband’s infidelities.

If you think a guy can question his opponent’s stamina while sniffling his way through a 98-minute debate.

If you think a guy should be able to scream that his temperament is better than his opponent’s.

You’re looking for Trump. You are beyond hope. You’ll get the hell you deserve.

The CNN poll thought Clinton won the debate by a 62-27 margin.

You know what scares me? That 27% of the people in this country who watched that debate have seeing and hearing problems.

1. It’s Monday, September 26, 2016. The election is 43 days away.

2. OK. The debate is tonight. The polls are as tight as possible, and tighter than they should possibly be.

The fate of the nation rides on the shoulders of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I’m sure she doesn’t need my advice. This is an amazingly accomplished person. She is brilliant. She is a leader.

And that’s the point.

That’s what she needs to be. If she conducts herself like a President of the United States, she will be President of the United States. If she shows her smarts, if she has her facts straight, if she stands tall and unafraid, she will win this.

It’s not about the other guy, despite the bluster and the insults and the lies.

It’s about her. It’s about showing that she is the leader this nation and the world need.

She is the giant in this race, and her opponent is the pretender.

She has been waiting for this moment her entire life. It is time to seize it.

It’s September 23, 2016, just 46 days until the election.

And it’s time for 20 Questions Friday. I’ll ask questions of varying degrees of answerability You can do the answering. You can imagine what I would answer. You can scroll to the next tweet. It’s your choice.

— What Trump persona will show up at the debate Monday night?

— Will Hillary Clinton try to goad Trump into a stupidity eruption, or will she be smart and stick to telling people what she would do as President?

— Are you like me and checking fivethirtyeight.com’s election forecast every five minutes to see if Clinton’s position has improved?

— Is there a lot of pressure on Lester Holt or what?

— The back alley is a Midwestern thing, isn’t it?

— Was Chris Christie de facto convicted of obstruction of justice, since both the prosecution and defense in the George Washington Bridge lane closing trial say he knew about it in advance?

— Why would Democrats want to impeach Christie when they can have him be a punching bag as governor of New Jersey for another year plus?

— What do you think Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf did after getting a verbal spanking from Sen. Elizabeth Warren at a hearing on the bank’s cross-selling scandal?

— Will the Charlotte police ever release the video of the shooting of Keith Scott?

— While questioning an African-American man, do police officers ever think about the previous incidents that resulted in the person they’re questioning being dead?

— Has there been a day cool enough this September that inspired you to eat soup and drink warm beverages?

— Do other baseball teams put their fans go through the extreme highs and lows that the New York Mets do?

— Whoever thought eating Skittles would be a political statement?

— Is it just me, or is it still pretty amazing that it only took a day and a-half for the New York police and federal agents to find the guy they suspected of the Chelsea bombing?

— Does everybody remember that the guy is still just accused of the Chelsea bombing, and can’t be called the Chelsea bomber until the legal process is complete?

— How confident are you in anything Yahoo does if it didn’t know for two years that 500 million of its accounts had been hacked?

— Have you read any of David Fahrenthold’s reporting on the Trump “Foundation” for The Washington Post? If not, why not?

— On John Coltrane’s 90th birthday, what is your piece of his? Or favorite album?

— Do you want to know a secret? (Fourth in a series of song-title questions.)

— Did you get a patronus at pottermore.com? (Mine is a white mare)

1. It’s Tuesday, September 20, 2016. The election is 49 days away.

2. Hey Wrigley Co., the Skittles PR spokeswoman, Denise Young, deserves a raise.

Last night, Trump’s idiot similarly named offspring put out a tweet that showed a picture of a bowl of Skittles. It asked the question that if “I” said three of the candies were lethal, would you take a handful?

And then he said that’s our Syrian refugee problem.

Of course, social media is agog as such idiocy. Among stupid things, it probably makes certain that no one at Wrigley, the maker of Skittles, will vote for this gagootz’s father.

Clearly, Wrigley was going to have to weigh in. Ms. Young did so with a soberness that shows she’s far more ready to President of the United States than either Trump père or fils.

She wrote: “Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don’t feel it’s an appropriate analogy. We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing.”

Just as “deplorables” might have fired up the Trump backers, Skittles might get the Clinton voters up in arms.

3. David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post has taken on the task of reporting about The Trump Foundation. So he’s already got a reserved spot in heaven.

What he’s found so far is pretty amazing.

That almost none of the charities the foundation claims to have supported say they’ve received any money from it. That Trump stopped donating money to the foundation several years ago, and has instead been donating money with a Trump imprimatur that was actually given by other people. That some of the money the foundation spent money on was used for objects – including a 6-foot portrait of Trump – for Trump’s personal use.

In today’s revelation, Fahrenthold says the foundation paid $258,000 to settle legal problems involving his for-profit businesses. That is a violation of law and pretty much goes against the whole moral purpose of foundations. 

It might be that the Skittles flap will do more damage to Trump’s campaign than Fahrenthold’s dogged reporting. That’s not the way it should be. Yes, the Skittles thing shows how clueless Trumptopia is.

But the corruption of the idea of charity that Trump has perpetrated for years is more insidious and disqualifying.

4. Here’s a reminder to would-be terrorists from wherever:

New Yorkers are descendants of the Jets and the Sharks of “West Side Story.” We don’t go crazy when something bad happens.

We play it cool.

New York didn’t shut down after Saturday’s explosion in Chelsea. The subways ran – except, perhaps, in the area around the blast site. The Mets played. Broadway shows were performed. There was a line at Shake Shack.

We just roll with it.

Because, in truth, that is strength. The bastards want us to be scared and roll up our lives.

The hell with them. By being New Yorkers in the same way Monday as we were Saturday, we give them the middle finger. All the work that went into putting together those bombs couldn’t stop us from being us.

And that, America, is why New Yorkers are about to reject a native son running for President in the most definitive way ever. Because he might have born here, but he has no idea how to be a New Yorker.

It’s September 16, 2016. It’s 53 days until the election and 100 days until Christmas.

And it’s Friday. Which means it’s 20 Questions Friday, my effort to put my wisdom for the week into interrogatory form. This is done for your information, your entertainment and your love of quizzes.

Here we go:

— Hey, Trump supporters and enablers, what’s the word – hint, it begins with a “c” and ends with “oward” – that describes who shifts a notable position he’s held about the President of the United States, attributes it falsely to his opponent – and then runs away from reporters without answering questions?

— Isn’t it ridiculous that any attention should be paid to Trump’s position on whether President Obama was born in the United States?

— Should President Obama be honored or thrilled that Trump deigns to agree that he was born in the United States?

— Why does sarcasm, such as the previous question, drip? Is it wet?

— Shouldn’t CNN, Fox News and MSNBC send Trump a bill for the ad he got them to run for his new Washington hotel?

— Who really thinks Trump would pay that bill, either?

— Should Hillary Clinton offer Trump a $5 million donation to his, ahem, foundation if he can prove she started the birther movement?

— What possible negative question could I ask about Hillary Clinton so I can show “balance” after the Trump debacle of the last 24 hours? Or the last 13 months, for that matter?

— Does the fact that the first eight (now, nine) questions in this week’s 20 Questions show how pissed I am about Trump?

— How clueless did Samsung have to be for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to step in and conduct the recall of fire-possible Galaxy Note 7 phone?

— Do you think Christoph Waltz is wondering if he put a match to his career with those dopey Galaxy Note 7 commercials that ran during the Olympics?

— With the release of Oliver Stone’s “Snowden” movie, am I in a minority in not seeing this guy as any great hero?

— Does this New York Times piece on the new National African-American History and Culture make you as eager to go here as I am? 

— Why would any sane person go to Missouri after its legislature overrode the governor’s veto and enacted insane gun legislation? 

— Does anybody know the combination to the gym lock in my kitchen?

— As the Mets try to secure a National League Wild Card game berth, what team should I root for in their head-to-head series – the Giants, who are a game ahead of the Mets, or the Cardinals, who are a game behind?

— As good as the numbers were in this week’s Census Bureau report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage, won’t it be hard for Democrats to capitalize on something so wonky and abstract? 

— What becomes of the brokenhearted? (Third in a series of song-title questions)

— Have the leaves started to turn where you are?

— Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

1. It’s Thursday, September 15, 2016. We’re halfway through the month and 54 days from the election.

2. The lead Hillary Clinton held over Trump through much of August has narrowed, if not closed altogether, according to some recent polls.

Nate Silver, the mastermind of fivethirtyeight.com and statistical journalism, seems to believe Democrats don’t take this narrowing seriously. He says as much in one of a series of tweets this morning – one that also wonders if the narrowing is a sign that recent events have dampened Clinton’s supporters’ enthusiasm.

3. I stopped thinking Trump was a joke late last year.

When this campaign started, I liked the idea of calling him Donny. It just seemed annoying enough – you can imagine the underlying red in his face with the overlapping orange blending into a full-blown firehead.

But he stopped being funny when he won Republican primaries and survived.

What’s lost in all this is what the American people need when there’s an election. A discussion of real issues and how candidates will deal with them.

Hillary Clinton keeps playing by that book. She thinks that putting out plans and offering ideas for solving problems and making Americans’ lives better is how you’re supposed to run for President.

She’s right, of course.

So Nate Silver’s comments should be a wake-up call for Democrats. Believe the numbers. He’s not making this stuff up – he’s basing it on polling from organizations with firm reputations and, despite what Trump says, no bias.

4. And it’s time to go back to what makes Hillary Clinton the best qualified candidate for President in 2016 – and one of the best ever.

She’s smart. She knows what she’s talking about. She’s taken blows from all sides and she’s still standing.

She needs to double down on that.

Clinton might be able to win the election by painting Trump as the dangerous demagogue he is.

But she’ll crush the jackass if she can make people understand why she should be President.

Here’s one counterintuitive tip: Limit the campaign in places where she’ll draw enthusiastic crowds. She’ll get warm greetings among in community college auditoriums where people of varied races and ethnicities show up. She’ll get a big turnout when speaking to groups of women, for whom she represents the hope of breaking the ultimate glass ceiling.

5. But Clinton should take on the doubters.

She should campaign in parts of critical states where she isn’t popular. She should go to VFW halls in rural Ohio. She should speak to farmers in North Carolina. She should talk to factory workers in Iowa.

She should tell them why she’d be a good President for them. She should take on the skeptics and answer questions. She should show off her fearlessness and her intelligence. If crowds persist in shouting up Trump, then she should explain why he’s bad for them.

But the emphasis should be on what Clinton will do to make Americans’ lives better. To show that she understands that the economic recovery hasn’t reached everyone. To reiterate, without equivocation, that America is great – that its diversity, its tolerance, its innovation are what separate it from the rest of the world.

Yes, Clinton is right – at least half of Trump’s supporters are a “basket of deplorables.” I know. I live around them. Their antipathy toward anyone who doesn’t fit into their group is tangible.

Yes, Trump is the most dangerous presidential candidate in American history. Should he win, we will have become supplanted as the world’s No. 1 power by a Russia that would like nothing better than to have a manipulable dope in the White House.

But for Clinton to win, she has to prove why she should be President – and not why Trump shouldn’t be. By definition, you go to the polling place and vote FOR someone. You are not asked who you don’t want.

Clinton needs America to want her. That’s how she should go after this.

1. It’s Tuesday, September 13, 2016. The election is 56 days away.

2. You know all that presidential campaign talk about how Americans are working harder and making less money?

The less money part is now less true.

The Census Bureau announced this morning that the nation’s median household income rose 5.2% last year, the biggest single-year jump since the government began accumulating data in 1967. The gains cover all demographics and regions of the country.

If anything, different groups might begrudge the gains of others. Hispanics saw their income rise 6.1%, while Asians only got a 3.7% boost. Those between age 35 and 44 got a 7%, twice the rate of increase as my 55-to-64 group. Of course.

Still, a raise is better than a drop. And drop is what median income has been doing since 2007, as the recession got underway.

And income wasn’t the only good news about this report. There’s the biggest drop in the poverty rate since 1999. And 4 million fewer people don’t have health insurance.

3. It would be an understatement to say the Obama administration is ecstatic about this.

Up to now, the administration has had an uphill climb in its effort to boost the economy. It came into office amid the worst recession since the Great Depression. And Congress, whether in the hands of Republicans or reluctant Democrats, has been of zero help for most of the eight years.

And yet, the stimulus package, the push for infrastructure improvement, the drive toward more renewable energy and the oft-cursed Affordable Care Act have finally resulted in impressive gains.

The trick, of course, will be to keep going. The White House says it’s confident the 2016 figures will be strong. But after that, the economy will be in the hands of someone else.

You can bet Obama will tout these numbers for the next 56 days as he pushes to have Hillary Clinton succeed him.

And the Clinton campaign, rather than focus on the latest Trump stupidity, should double down on this: While median household income is up for the first time in eight years, it’s still below the peak. That peak was reached in 1999 – when Bill Clinton sat in the Oval Office.

4. All Hillary Clinton’s pneumonia represents is bad timing.

It’s a wonder presidential candidates, who travel constantly in the germ factories that are airplane cabins and shake the hands of people who may have just coughed into them, don’t get sick all the time.

And, like so many other workers in and out of politics, Clinton didn’t feel she had time to let illness slow her down. She paid for it Sunday with the wobbliness at Ground Zero, and that led to the revelation about the pneumonia.

Now if it leads her to be a little more forthcoming about her health, that’s not bad. For one thing, it answers the meatballs who have given her every disease and affliction known to the human race. In fact, it’s surprising that the Trump supporters haven’t speculated about hairballs and ringworm.

Sometimes the Clinton people flinch at the idea that she should reveal more about herself. But here’s the thing: We’re coming off eight years of a president whose been seen draining a 20-foot jumper. And if you want to be non-partisan, his predecessor was supposedly a fanatic about jogging around the White House.

Americans not only want to know that their President is healthy, they want to know how he – and if Clinton wins, she – gets that way.

The Clinton people should, as soon as they can, release more details about her current condition. And I think they should disclose what she does to maintain her health.

No, it’s not as important as being a knowledgeable leader and having ideas for change. But it’s a good way to show people the clearly better candidate.

It’s September 9, 2016. It’s 60 days before the election. It’s my son’s 22nd birthday.

And, because it’s Friday, it’s time for 20 Questions Friday. I’ll ask some questions that have been on my mind for the past week. You can answer them, not answer them, point to them and say “What idiot would ask that?” (which would leave you with 19 questions to go)

Enjoy your weekend. Here goes:

— In a race in a full glass of champagne, which would rise to the top faster, a bubble or Matt Lauer?

— How about that Trevor Siemian? (DISCLAIMER: Mr. Siemian and I attended the same best-in-the-world educational institution, although not at the same time)

— If Trump somehow wins, will President Obama join the Adamses (and, of course, the guys who died in office) as the only Presidents not to show up at their successors’ inauguration?

— How pissed are those 36 people who spent the night trapped in a cable car above Mont Blanc?

— Doesn’t not knowing anything about Aleppo disqualify Gary Johnson as a presidential candidate, even if he’s only running on a third-party ticket?

— Is anybody going to see the “Sully” movie?

— Was the “Commander-in-Chief Forum” debacle a blessing in disguise, possibly leading to three serious presidential debates?

— Isn’t it a little early for pumpkin stuff on menus?

— Will Tim Tebow ever play a game for the Mets in Citi Field?

— Do you think the fake Wells Fargo accounts opened by employees had better interest rates than the real ones opened by customers?

— Does Kim Jong-Un have a death wish?

— If you’re a part of my generation, do you miss Howard Johnson’s?

— If you’re not a part of my generation, do you know what Howard Johnson’s is? 

— Is anyone ever going to call Trump out when he keeps saying he was always opposed to the war in Iraq?

— Does anybody really think a ring-through-the-nostrils looks good?

— Other than watching your team win a championship, is there anything better in baseball than watching young players develop into great players?

— So how do you think Roger Ailes is spending the weekend?

— Who, if anyone, is excited about iPhone 7?

— Wouldn’t it be nice? (Second in a series of song-title questions)

— Can the Mets hold this playoff spot for three more weeks?

1. It’s Wednesday, September 7, 2016. The election is 62 days away.

2. Today is mathematically correct.

3. Roger Ailes apparently doesn’t plan to just cash his $40 million Fox News severance check and retire.

The New York Times says Ailes’ lawyers deny what was widely reported yesterday, that the Dr. Frankenstein of right-wing TV news is paying part of the network’s $20 million settlement with Gretchen Carlson. She’s the former Fox News host who sued the network alleging that Ailes sexually harassed her. 

As part of the settlement, parent company 21st Century Fox apologized to Carlson for the way she was treated. That treatment was not explicitly attributed to Ailes, but since that was her allegation, it’s a pretty fair conclusion.

Ailes’ lawyers are also on an offensive – a good word to describe anything involving this overgrown slug – against Gabriel Sherman. His story for New York magazine details how Carlson got the goods on Ailes by taping incriminating conversations, and how other women at Fox described his harassment of them.

There are indications that Ailes is planning to sue Sherman and New York. He’s retained the same lawyer who successfully sued Gawker on behalf of Hulk Hogan, resulting in the demise of the gossip site.

Ailes isn’t saying anything himself. He has been counseling Trump ahead of the presidential debates.

You would think he would slink away. He’s been given the opportunity to hide somewhere with his money and live out his days.

I guess once you’re addicted to being a serial jackass, it’s hard to kick the habit.

4. President Obama’s trip to Asia didn’t go perfectly.

There’s confusion about whether he was dissed by the Chinese in his arrival at the G-20 summit in Hangzhou. And there was the whole flap with the moron who’s president of The Philippines.

But the President was there to sign the Paris climate change accord and put the United States on the roster of civilization trying to combat this scourge.

And he demonstrated our nation’s responsibility when he visited Laos, where the United States left millions of unexploded bombs during the Vietnam War era, killing and maiming thousands of people.

Obama didn’t apologize – I’m sure his critics will say he did, again. But he put this country on the side of doing right, something it hasn’t always done.

That will be his foreign policy legacy. The outreach to people and places that the U.S. has treated brusquely for most of its rise to empire. If those countries don’t want that outreach – we’re talking the Philippines and North Korea – it is their loss.

1. It’s Tuesday, September 6, 2016. The election is 63 days away.

2. Fox News thought better of the idea of a protracted legal battle with Gretchen Carlson. So, instead of pressing to enforce its claim that her sexual harassment suit against the network go to arbitration, it settled for $20 million, according to Vanity Fair. 

But not only is parent company 21st Century Fox paying off Carlson – it’s apologizing for the way she was treated. “We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve,” the company said in a statement. 

The settlement comes not long after Gabriel Sherman’s disturbing piece for New York magazine about former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, painting a picture of a serial sexual harasser for almost a half century. Sherman says that Carlson had a weapon on her own – she secretly recorded incriminating conversations with Ailes. 

Ailes didn’t like Sherman’s piece. He hired the lawyer who took down Gawker and is said to be mulling a suit against New York.

But here’s the problem for Ailes. One, his employer has settled with Carlson and apologized for the misbehavior attributed to Ailes. Two, there are indications Ailes is on the hook for some of the $20 million that Carlson’s getting. 

That’s going to make it hard to prove that Sherman doesn’t have at least some of what he wrote right.

3. It’s great that Carlson won this battle for dignity, and actually won it fairly convincingly. It was only two months ago that this whole controversy broke into the open – often, stuff like this takes months and years to come to resolution.

The settlement gives her an opportunity. TV networks and newsrooms of all kinds aren’t the only workplaces where women are sexually harassed. It happens all over the country, and often to women who don’t feel empowered to fight back.

A woman who’s won big over a powerful media outlet can be quite a symbol for others who don’t have her resources but certainly match her problem.

Carlson is politically conservative. She worked on Fox News. She once implied that Ted Kennedy was a hostile enemy of the United States because he opposed funding for the Iraq troop surge. A member of the Bush White House team actually disputed her characterization. 

But this doesn’t seem to be a conservative-liberal thing. Respect isn’t political. Or it shouldn’t be.  Respect is basic human civility, and a workplace in which women don’t feel comfortable should be unacceptable to everyone.

Carlson, in her statement released by 21st Century Fox, seems to be on track. “I’m ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace,” she said. “All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace in which talent, hard work and loyalty are recognized, revered and rewarded.”

4. The new president of The Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is a jackass.

What he did over the weekend, dissing President Obama, is only a microscopic part of why. He and Obama were supposed to meet during a regional summit in Laos. But if Obama brought up a Filipino crackdown supposed to target drug dealers, Duterte would call the President a Tagalog curse that means “son of a whore,” according to The New York Times.

Obama, who only has 4-1/2 months left as President, doesn’t think he wants to waste any of it talking to a crackpot. So he canceled the meeting.

Now, of course, that he looks like the fool he is, Duterte is apologizing. But, instead of having his stature raised by being seen with the most respected figure in the world, he’s reduced himself and his country in the eyes of the world.

Duterte’s crackdown is a serious matter. Estimates put the death toll at around 2,000, as Duterte has empowered police and vigilantes to take justice into their own hands. That thing about giving the accused a trial is too annoying for him to deal with.

So Obama was right to cancel. And because the United States remains an important part of Filipino life – the country was an American colony until 1946 – giving Duterte any sort of standing until reason bites him in the butt is unacceptable.

The U.S. should treat Duterte the way it treats other tinhorns – as clowns on the world stage, undermining their standing with the people of their country.

If Duterte wants to see what happens with that sort of treatment, he need only look at Venezuela, which is on the verge of revolution in the wake of the oil price collapse. The Obama administration, insulted by the late President Hugo Chavez and his successor, isn’t about to help them out.