NOT ENCOURAGING – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  A few weeks ago a clueless Donald Trump was saying we should allow Russia to do our job for us by knocking out ISIS in Syria.  Now he's saying that he isn't convinced pro-Russian separatists took down a Malaysian airliner, despite newly released evidence that they did.  Trump is hardly coming off as a credible voice in foreign policy.  When you start siding with Russia...  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) Donald Trump doesn't believe there is enough evidence to blame pro-Russian separatists for last year's downing of a commercial airliner over Ukraine -- despite the fact that the U.S. intelligence community believes "with confidence" that pro-Russian separatists shot it down.

Trump was asked on MSNBC Wednesday about a new report from Dutch investigators that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian-made rocket and warhead -- and asked what he would do as president to hold Russia accountable.

"They say it wasn't them," he replied. "It may have been their weapon, but they didn't use it, they didn't fire it, they even said the other side fired it to blame them. I mean to be honest with you, you'll probably never know for sure."

Trump later said the culprit was "probably" Russia and pro-Russian fighters, but he said the U.S. needs to focus on its own problems right now and not "get involved" in overseas conflicts, even one as "horrible" as this.

"I think it is horrible," Trump said of the incident. "But they're saying it wasn't them. The other side says it is them. And we're going to go through that arguing for probably for 50 years and nobody is ever going to know. Probably was Russia."

COMMENT:  Gee, Donald, thanks for such a sophisticated analysis.  And thanks for undercutting the Dutch investigators, who have a solid reputation. 

All Donald had to do was say that he wouldn't comment until he'd studied the matter.  That's what experienced pros do. 

Trump appears to have stalled in the polls, with Carson coming up behind him. 

The next debate is October 28th, and maybe we'll be able to make further judgments.  But there will still be too many Republican candidates on the stage, and that is causing severe damage to the process.  The Democratic debate had four contenders, producing far more useful focus on each individual.

October 15,  2015