Donald Trump keeps saying that the November election is a referendum on him, so a key part of the Democratic strategy is feeding the narrative of chaos in the White House: Trump-baiting so he’ll overreact.

I am having reading comprehension difficulties. I first read that as Trump-baiting of the Democrats was the White House strategy. I got it completely back-asswards.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately warned Mr. Trump not to fire Mr. Rosenstein, which in today’s Washington means that he wants Mr. Trump to fire him. Then he’ll have another media conflagration his candidates can ride to retake Congress.

Uh...Okay, I see now: "Don't fire him! I'm warning you!" "Think that'll push the ghoul's buttons?" I think he should fire him.

Mr. Rosenstein had written an excellent memo explaining why Mr. Comey deserved to be fired as FBI director. But Mr. Trump, taking the anti-Trump media bait, told NBC that the real reason he fired Mr. Comey was because he refused to say publicly that he wasn’t investigating Mr. Trump. Then the President tweeted falsely that there may be tapes of Mr. Comey’s White House meetings. Mr. Comey leaked his own memos, and a political uproar left Mr. Rosenstein feeling used.

Um...What was the "anti-Trump media bait" Trump took? Something that made Trump tell NBC he fired Comey over investigating him...What about telling Lavrov that he fired Comey to take pressure Russia pressure off him? That's pretty potent bait to get a person to make a person run to the mainstream media and then separately to social media. I'm going to give the Wall Street Journal the benefit of the doubt here because I am feeling addled but in my addled state I am not following that.

The immediate battle now is over the midterm election and whether Mr. Trump can stay in office...

In my mis-reading of the lead paragraph my brain immediately went to the Dems midterm strategy. That is in fact where Wally went too and they think, per that last quote, that that is what the Dems strategy is and ought to be.  I tell you now (addled admittedly) that I do not think that is what the Democratic strategy is nor what it ought to be. The midterms obviously are not about Trump, he's not on the ballot; they're not about impeachment, the midterms are about what midterms have always been about: local conditions--affected by  national conditions and perceptions, sure--party affiliation, and local candidates, THEY are on the ballot, not Trump, not Hillary Clinton. The GOP would have lost the Alabama Senate race with Roy Moore on the ballot if Abraham Lincoln George Wallace was the Republican president. Connor Lamb won the Pennsylvania congressional race mainly because of who he was, he was from political central casting for Pa., is who he was. 

The Gosar-Brill race in Arizona is so powerfully symbolized by that ad by the Gosar siblings, that ad is so powerful because it's all about Gosar! Trump's name was not mentioned ONCE by any of the Gosar-7. That same ad, with Trump inserted for Gosar, would have been counter-productive in Arizona. It was Gosar the congressman who brought Trump into it in a, guess what, a tweet. Nazi Paul tried to deflect that seven-cannon barrage by saying his siblings made the ad only because "They hate President Trump." 

So, I think I am thinking more clearly now and I say, Wally can prove me wrong, but I say the Democrats have NOT made Trump the issue, and they ought NOT make Trump the issue. They have better candidates, they don't have candidates who are serial sexual predators, convicted felons (West Virginia) and they don't have candidates who SEVEN brothers and sisters endorse their Democratic opponent.