On June 29, Fox News revealed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the president had exchanged information on the night of the deadly Benghazi attack, a revelation that indicated the president was possibly coordinating the nation’s response to that terrorist event as it was ongoing. The details of that exchange were withheld from the press, but not on the grounds that they were classified in nature. Less than 36 hours after this revelation, however, the trail the press was following went cold after they became sidetracked by Donald Trump’s contention that Illegal immigrants from Mexico are “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime; they’re rapists.”

The fallout from Hillary Clinton’s early July interview on CNN, the first national television interview of her campaign, was still settling on July 12 when CNN’s John King declared her contention that she had never received a subpoena for her emails from congressional investigators “just simply not true.” Who knows how far the condemnation might have gone, because the following day Trump asserted that he would have preferred it if the United States invaded Mexico instead of Iraq in 2003.

The Center for Medical Progress made a splash on July 14 when the first of a series of undercover videos featuring controversial and potentially illegal practices at Planned Parenthoods. That controversy exploded on July 15, when conservatives noticed a conspicuous lack of interest in the sting video from major media outlets. But even conservatives had moved on by July 18, when the Planned Parenthood controversy took a backseat to the latest tendentious Trump comments: His insistence that Senator John McCain was no war hero because he allowed himself to be captured by the Viet Cong after being shot down over Hanoi.

On August 14, Hillary Clinton’s rolling email controversy began boiling once again when an investigation into her emails discovered they contained what was surely classified information, including satellite imagery and confirmation of an unacknowledged program of drone-executed assassinations inside Pakistan. It wasn’t 48 hours before the nation moved on, however, when the Trump campaign released a white paper calling for the elimination of the provision in the Constitution extending birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants born on American soil.

“What, like with a cloth?” an unconvincing Hillary Clinton asked reporters when they inquired if she had tried to wipe information from her server before surrendering it to the FBI. That was on August 18, but that comment was quickly forgotten when Trump averred later that night that, as president, he would direct the courts to “find out whether or not anchor babies are actually citizens.” “I don’t think they have American citizenship,” he added, igniting the outrage cycle anew.

The federal government reluctantly admitted on September 23 that the Office of Personnel Management hack, allegedly executed by Chinese intelligence agents, was so severe that tens of millions of Americans may have had their personal information compromised. That same day, Trump decided to reignite his ongoing feud with the Fox News Channel and anchor Megyn Kelly, announcing that he was boycotting the network.

In a major blow to the Obama administration, Russia began an overt intervention into the Syrian civil war early on the morning of September 30. The news was briefly dominated by the scale of the threat posed by Russian forces operating in the same theater as NATO assets, but it was muted by Trump’s determination to spark a domestic debate over the refugees streaming out of that country on October 1. Trump, who had previously said the U.S. had a duty to accept Syrian refugees because “it’s a living hell in Syria,” now contended that America could not accept any refugees at all. What’s more, those we’ve already accepted must be deported.

The nation refocused its attention on the slow-motion train wreck that is ObamaCare on October 15, when the Congressional Budget Office revealed that new enrollments would come in well below projections. This threat to the stability of Barack Obama’s signature achievement was buried in an avalanche of Trumpian furor, now directed toward George W. Bush who he noted did not keep the country safe on September 11. “Blame him or don’t blame him, but he was the president,” Trump said.

American eyes turned toward Hillary Clinton on October 22, as she prepared for a marathon testimony over her role in the Benghazi attacks before a Congressional panel. Those eyes were, however, briefly redirected back toward Trump on that afternoon when he insisted that his reduced standing in polls of Iowa Republicans was the result of genetically-modified corn rendering Iowans idiots. Like theimage of Nazi soldiers overlaid on an American flag, Trump later insisted that this blooper was the work of an intern.

Hillary Clinton suffered a brief moment of scrutiny in the press when she was criticized for not correcting an audience member who gleefully joked about throttling the life out of Carly Fiorina. Clinton laughed at the dark joke, and Trump would have been justified in piling on Clinton. After all, he was also criticized for not correcting a town hall participant who called Obama a secret Muslim. Just over 24 hours after this gaffe exploded in the press, however, Trump changed the subject again. This time, linking what he determined were the eerie similarities between the violent pathology to which Ben Carson admitted having as a youth and the same mental deficiencies that afflict a child molester.

Three days after the Paris terror attack, Barack Obama delivered a remarkably callous assessment of the terror threat by calling the slaughter of over 130 civilians a “setback.” That same day, Trump opted to flog his idée fixe when he insisted that Syrian refugees represent a “Trojan horse,” and may be part of a larger “plot” to attack the United States from within.

Americans were still reeling from the Paris attacks when Democrats on the debate stage committed a number of gaffes. Those included the candidates’ universal determination not to say the phrase “radical Islam” when referring to the war on radical Islam and Bernie Sanders’ bizarre claim that climate change represents a more immediate threat to American national security than terrorism. Hillary Clinton did herself no favors when she insisted that the donations she received from Wall Street executives was her way of coping with the 9/11 attacks. The press was still coming to terms with this bizarre assertion on November 19, when Trump insisted that he would “absolutely” create a database designed to track all Americans who practiced the Muslim faith. Political reporters moved on; Clinton was saved.

This makes Mona Charen reasonably observe:

It’s not clear whether he set out intentionally to elect Hillary Clinton, but there is little question that he could not be fulfilling the role of Republican bogeyman to greater effect.

As Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin noted, during a week in which the disastrous fecklessness of President Obama and his party in the face of terrorism ought to have been Topic A, we are all talking about Trump instead. Brilliant. Tobin’s point actually applies to the entire presidential contest. By rights, it should be about the Democrats’ unraveling. From Obamacare to terrorism, from the economy to climate change, and from guns to free speech, progressive policies have proven deeply disappointing when not downright obtuse and dangerous. Clinton promises more of the same while trailing an oil slick of corruption in her wake. And yet swinging into the frame, week in and week out, the orange-maned billionaire bogeyman dominates the discussion.

Hell yes, Republicans are anti-Hispanic bigots, Trump (a lifelong Democrat) is supposed to confirm. Just look at the way he talked about Mexican “rapists” and vowed to build a wall that Mexico will fund.

Hell yes, Republicans want to fight a war on women. Did you hear what Trump said about Megyn Kelly and Carly Fiorina?

Hell yes, Republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-handicapped, anti-Jewish, and anti-Muslim. Line ‘em up and Trump will offend. Not cleverly, mind you, but crudely. Donald Trump is fond of saying that our political leaders are stupid, constantly outmaneuvered at the bargaining table by shrewder Chinese, Mexicans, and Japanese. No one can accuse him of stupidity, provided his goal is to elect Hillary Clinton.

This week, while we were still burying our dead from San Bernardino, every Republican — instead of explaining why President Obama’s refusal to fight the war on terror has led to this moment — instead had to condemn Donald Trump’s mindless proposal to keep every single Muslim out of the United States until further notice. Again, he’s the perfect bogeyman.

It’s not just that what he says demands condemnation. It’s that it seems to give credence to the Democrats’ narrative. One of the false notes in President Obama’s Sunday-evening speech was his resort to one of his favorite libels about the American people he purports to lead. He scolded the country for its Islamophobia. “It is the responsibility of all Americans — of every faith — to reject discrimination. It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country. It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently.”

That’s not the trouble here. America is an incredibly welcoming nation and has opened its arms to Muslims along with people from every part of the globe. Far from targeting American Muslims for discrimination, the U.S. has been a haven. Though liberals like to conjure it to slander the U.S., anti-Muslim discrimination and violence have been minimal in the U.S., even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. (The most common targets of religious bigotry in America? Jews.)

On the other hand, it’s only common sense to proceed with caution about admitting thousands of refugees and immigrants from the part of the world that is currently aflame with Islamic extremism. That caution, not to be confused with discrimination (there is no constitutional right to come to America), was endorsed just three weeks ago by a large majority in Congress (including 47 Democrats). It isn’t anti-Muslim to seek to exclude Muslim extremists. Leave it to Trump to lob a stink bomb that putrefies everything.

Above all, the great favor that Trump does for Obama and for Hillary Clinton is to focus on personalities instead of philosophy. Trump, of course, has nothing to offer except personality (even if its charm eludes me). But his emphasis on “getting the best people” is exactly wrong. That’s the progressive idea — that the best people know better how to run your life than you do. That’s what we’ve had under President Obama. Obama is a failure not because he’s stupid, or stubborn, or inexperienced. He’s a failure because he believes in failed ideas.

Hillary Clinton believes in all the same myths and shibboleths. After two terms of decline and decay, voters are ready for a different approach, unless someone crashes the Republican party. Can it be pure accident that Donald Trump is playing the role to perfection?