I’ve been traveling to presidential debates since 1988, and the one I just saw here at Hofstra University was historic.

Republican nominee Donald Trump turned in the worst ― and I mean worst ― debate performance in modern times. It was so bad that in a normal year, it would disqualify him from getting anywhere near the White House.

But this is 2016, a year so weird, unsettled and unsettling, that even the spectacle of an unprepared and almost incoherent Trump, reeling from blow after blow from Democrat Hillary Clinton, may not be enough to slow him down.

The electorate is divided and dug in, and the nominees are the most disliked since polling began. Even Monday’s televised mismatch may not move the numbers much. One snap poll, from PPP, showed Clinton the “winner,” 51 percent to 40 percent.