How so? Well, losing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe spent his entire campaign working to tie Glenn Youngkin to Trump.

This was an understandable impulse, since Trump’s dominating presence from 2016 onward did cause a surge in Democratic voting that won the House in 2018 and the presidency in 2020.

But if you look at the strategy with cold eyes, you have to say that, at best, it’s a bank shot — and you only take a bank shot in pool when you don’t have a better one.

As a matter of existential fact, Glenn Youngkin is not Donald Trump. Only Donald Trump is Donald Trump. You could run against Trump when he was the one running, or when your vote could be cast to stymie or thwart his presidential agenda.