GUEST COLUMN, Dick Morris

During the Clinton years, State of the Union speeches routinely led to huge upticks in the president’s approval ratings. But in the highly polarized and fiercely partisan environment of today’s politics, they have had little impact other than to reinforce partisan differences among voters.

Trump’s State of the Union speech last week is the exception. Polling by Harvard-Harris, the best firm out there (except for John McLaughlin), shows a mammoth change favoring Republicans after the speech. The GOP went from an 8 point deficit to a tie in voting preferences in the midterm elections. A huge change reminiscent of the swings we used to get in the 90s.

The media has ignored this sea change and even pretends that the president’s sallies against Democrats for not responding to his stories of murders by illegal aliens had no effect. In fact, they had a huge impact. The Democrats’ knee jerk support for illegal immigration has had the effect of stigmatizing the entire party.

When you add in the likely impact of our success in killing Khomeini — and the Democrats’ criticism of Trump for doing so — we may be watching a permanent change in how the country sees the political wars in Washington.

Many voters are reacting against the automatic partisanship of Democrats in condemning Trump for doing very popular things — like killing our worst international enemy — Khomeini — and deporting killers and rapists.State of the Union analysis

The Democrats may have carried partisanship too far and may be wearing out the welcome from the American people. They are standing against a big popular consensus in favor of Trump’s triumph in Iran and his resolute stand against criminal aliens to their detriment — possibly permanently.

Imagine if, after Pearl Harbor, the opposition party tried to restrain President Roosevelt from reacting, citing the War Powers Act. That’s pretty close to what the Democrats are trying to do today!

The events killing of Khomeini and the partisanship of the Democratic response to the SOTU speech — may have pushed Americans too far.