ALL TRUMP ALL THE TIME – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  It's really remarkable to see – how CNN and others have struggled to replace terrorism with Donald Trump as the lead story. 

It goes on and on, especially at CNN.  Of course, it's standard fare on the journalistic left, painting the conservative opposition as (choose one or more) racist, sexist, anti-gay, militaristic, Islamophobic, or just people who get us upset.  In Trump's extreme suggestion to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the U.S., the establishment press has found the perfect distraction from the real issue – people who want to kill us.

In the meantime, Michael Goodwin of the New York Post, one of the best columnists around, analyzes Trump's strategy:

My first reaction to Donald Trump’s call to ban new Muslims from entering the United States was that he had simultaneously won the GOP nomination and lost the general election. My second reaction was that events will prove one of those predictions wrong.

If there are no more terror attacks in America before the end of the primary season, most Republican voters will see Trump’s plan as too radical and he will lose the nomination.

On the other hand, if there are more attacks in the homeland, many more voters will move in Trump’s direction and he would almost certainly win the nomination and maybe the presidency.

In effect, Trump is betting his campaign on there being more attacks. I hope he is wrong, but fear he will be right.

To be clear, I don’t support his plan. Singling out all Muslims is vulgar and probably unconstitutional. A religious test is unAmerican.

The idea is so toxic that it has the unfortunate effect of making President Obama look right for once. Obama warns repeatedly about Islamophobia, including in his grating Sunday-night lecture, even though there wasn’t much of it. Jews suffer disproportionately from religious hate crimes, not Muslims.

Trump obliterated those facts in a heartbeat, a development that could, temporarily at least, contaminate all get-tough approaches on terror and boost Obama and Hillary Clinton.

COMMENT:  It's worth reading the whole thing.  Goodwin has his ear to the ground.

December 9,  2015