What do you have to do to get some attention from CNN these days?

Fox News? MSNBC? Yo, yo, over here!

You might forgive candidates for local, statewide and national office for asking those questions on Tuesday. We are hurtling ever closer to the midterm election, the one that we keep hearing (and reporting) will be the most-important in our lifetime.

No matter how old you are.

And what do the national media want to talk about?

President Donald Trump. What else? He's dominating cable-news networks and national outlets a week before the election — an election in which he is not a candidate.

To be fair, real election news is breaking, all the time. Project Veritas released a secretly recorded video of U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat against U.S. Rep. Martha McSally. It’s a fascinating story that, given the reputation and track record of Project Veritas, drums up national interest.

Usually.

Birthright citizenship, Pittsburgh trip

But on Tuesday, Trump dominated the national news all day long. Most of us woke to tweets that, in an interview with Axios, said he was preparing an executive order to get rid of the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. This immediately ignited outrage, particularly Trump’s claim that the U.S. was “the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years, with all of those benefits.”

Actually, at least 30 countries do.

While the media sorted that out all morning, Trump traveled to Pittsburgh, where 11 people were gunned down Saturday in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, despite reports that he wasn’t welcome and that congressional leaders in both parties refused his invitation to go with him.

There is only so much oxygen to fuel the national media fire, and Trump has been taking most of it. This is not an accident, but by design. With some exceptions, like the Sinema story, he also figures in a lot of the election stories.

For instance, late Monday night Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum posted on Twitter of Trump, “As my grandmother told me — never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it. So ignore him and vote, Florida!”

Why go after the president in a state election? Well, Trump in an interview called Gillum a “stone cold thief.”

Changing the subject?

Some say that by attracting attention, Trump both energizes his base and lends support to the Republican candidates he wants to see elected. He is the rising tide that lifts all boats. Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist on CNN, said it’s all about making Trump the focus — and it’s something the president is good at.

“Sending troops to the border should be called ‘Operation Change the Subject,’ ” Begala said of Trump’s plans to send 5,200 active-duty troops to the southern border of the U.S. in response to the migrant caravan.

Trump has all but acknowledged this strategy. In a tweet on Oct. 26, after explosive devices were sent to people and groups Trump has criticized, he said, “Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows — news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans go out and vote!”

Will it be effective? We’ll find out Tuesday. But we’re not really talking national news, or talking politics. We’re talking Trump, who eclipses both.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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