Even CNN, which copped four out of ten "Fake News Awards" from President Trump, gets it, even if Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi don't. I cannot imagine a headline like this, or even poll results like this, being reported by progressive media pre-Trump.

With hours to go before a midnight deadline for Congress to fund the government or shut it down, most Americans say avoiding a shutdown is more important than passing a bill to maintain the program allowing people brought to the [U.S.] illegally as children to stay, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. But Democrats taking a hard line on legislation connecting government funding to the popular program known as DACA appear to have the backing of their constituents ... [Fifty-six percent] overall say approving a budget agreement to avoid a shutdown is more important than continuing the DACA program, while just 34% choose DACA over a shutdown. Democrats break narrowly in favor of DACA – 49% say it's more important vs. 42% who say avoiding a shutdown is the priority – while majorities of both Republicans (75%) and independents (57%) say avoiding a shutdown is more important.

Only 81 words into the article does CNN mention the "blame" questions, which are slightly more favorable to Democrats but not really that significant, since what matters most is the substance, not the emotions of blame, which have been conditioned by decades of propaganda:

[M]ore overall say President Donald Trump or the Republicans in Congress would be responsible for a shutdown if one happens.

As OMB head Nick Mulvaney stated yesterday in his press conference, this time, the shutdown will not be "weaponized," as it was during the 2013 Obama shutdown (which preceded massive GOP gains in the midterm election of 2014, despite pervasive media blame). This time around, no "essential" employees will be sent out to erect barriers around national monuments in order to provide photo ops for media to harangue Republicans with.

In place of such memes, the Trump administration is providing – almost immediately after the shutdown – photos of V.P. Pence meeting with U.S. troops overseas who will be denied paychecks in order to help Democrats demand amnesty for DACA recipients (and, according to their bill, many other illegal aliens and their extended families).

President Trump has altered the political battlefield and, by simply fighting back, is well positioned to win his showdown with congressional Democrats over the (very partial) "government shutdown."

The wonderful polemicist Kurt Schlichter sees the new terrain clearly:

Why, I'd be heartbroken if the government did less and a bunch of foreigners didn't get rewarded for ignoring our laws. I think this is just the right hill for the Democrats to choose to fight to the death on, and I encourage them to do so. Throw us right in that briar patch, because you are smart and savvy and there's no way a big dummy like Trump could beat you and make you look like fools.

A possible sign, in addition to CNN, is found on the surprisingly even-handed headlines found in today's New York Times home page coverage of the shutdown:

Note the headline in the lower-right-hand corner.

Paraphrasing Dirty Harry, Democrats have gone ahead and made my day with their shutdown theater. And unwittingly, they have handed President Trump the opportunity to inform Americans of how many bureaucrats turn out to be less than "essential" to the many people outside the Beltway who find themselves unaffected by the "crisis." This can only help him further downsize the federal bureaucracy.