We take only scant satisfaction in noting that the MSM finally show signs of understanding what Calbuzz laid out more than a month ago: that in their speeches to the Democratic National Convention in July, President Obama and Hillary Clinton herself reframed the 2016 presidential election by isolating Trumpism as a singular, virulent strain of nativistic ignorance, distinct from Republican, Democratic and all other American values and ideals.

The analytical point is simple. The American political landscape is divided in two parts: 1) Democrats, Republicans, independents, the middleclass, working people, women, blacks, Latinos and other minority groups and 2) Donald Trump.

As if struck by a blinding insight, the TV yackers seemed to have actually listened this time when Clinton said: “From the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia. He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party. His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous.”

Honest Abe, rolling in grave Even the sluggish commentators got the point when Clinton called the 2016 election “a moment of reckoning for every Republican dismayed that the party of Lincoln has become the party of Trump.”

“This is not conservatism as we have known it. This is not Republicanism as we have known it,” Clinton said. “We have our disagreements. We need good debates. Need to do it in respectful way. Not finger- pointing. Every day, more Americans are standing up and saying “enough is enough” — including a lot of Republicans,” Clinton said. “I’m honored to have their support. And I promise you this: With your help, I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans and Independents. For those who vote for me and those who don’t. For all Americans.”

“Us and Them,” Redefined Clinton was merely building on the analysis Obama had advanced in his speech to the DNC where he said:

“Look, we Democrats have always had plenty of differences with the Republican Party, and there’s nothing wrong with that. it’s precisely this contest of ideas that pushes our country forward.

“But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican and it sure wasn’t conservative. What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems, just the fanning of resentment and blame and anger and hate. And that is not the America I know.”

As we wrote on July 28: “Barack Obama on Wednesday masterfully reshaped Donald Trump’s division of the nation into “us and them” — putting Hillary Clinton, the middle class and American values on one side and the New York narcissist alone on the other.”

Left-Liberal Critics We should note that some left-wing Democrats (many with more theory than practical experience) don’t like the notion of isolating Mr. “I alone can fix it” from the Republican Party. They argue that Trump is nothing more than the personification of all that Republicans have represented and fought for. It’s a mistake, they insist, to make Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell the “good guys” when they will ultimately be just as obstructionist toward a Clinton administration as they have been to the Obama administration.

Perhaps. But before there even can be a Clinton administration, Trump must be dispatched. And if isolating him from moderate or even traditionalist Republican voters works, it matters little what else Trump tries to do to shore up his base. And it appears to be working, which is why Trump is scrambling to keep from losing broad swaths of GOP voters.

His phony “outreach” to blacks and Latinos, for example, has nothing to do with trying to recover his footing among these two behemoth voting blocs: it’s an attempt to reassure Republican women in particular that he is not the raving racist demonstrated by his past comments – about Mexican immigrants, Muslims, a Mexican-American federal judge, inner-city blacks, etc.

It’s as if he’s saying, “What are you going to believe: everything you’ve heard and seen from me for more than a year, or what I’m telling you now?”

Too late, Donald.