Every time Donald Trump says something unhinged or offensive, the same cast of characters in the media and Republican Party rushes to the conclusion that he’s finally punctured his inflated popularity among primary voters. Like how every piece of bad national news is Obama’s Katrina.
By my count, this is Donald Trump’s sixth or seventh Obama’s Katrina. Trump’s critics are right that it is unbecoming to suggest that voters in Iowa (or anywhere really) are stupid, and that Ben Carson’s anger is incurably pathological, like pedophilia, and that Carson is also probably exaggerating, if not lying outright, when he claims he tried to stab someone in his youth but was foiled by a knife-destroying belt buckle.
Unbecoming. But not wrong! And that’s ultimately why I suspect this will be another Obama’s Katrina like moment for Trump. Pored over endlessly by the media, but ultimately incidental to his success or failure. Trump’s popularity is rooted in his willingness to get angry about other people’s nonsense. This is no different.