Megyn Kelly took a victory lap with, uh, Michael Moore.

When Jabba the Hut gushed at her, it made her all wet.

When Jabba the Hut gushed at her, it made her all wet.

She and a considerable percentage of the “pure” conservatives think Donald Trump is afraid of Megyn Kelly.

Let me disabuse you of that delusion.

Everybody is so distracted by their conviction that Trump is an idiot, they fail to see what a masterful politician he is.

Here’s his calculus. Sure, he can trade barbs with Megyn Kelly and endure the ambush Fox News has set up for him. But how does that help? She’s an ambitious flibbertigibbet and is riding the crest of a ratings wave based on her irrational disdain for The Donald. So the debate could be about Trump and Megyn, which can’t help but elevate her and lower him, or it can not occur at all.

Not occur at all is the rational alternative. Trump does not need the debate. He has participated in, and won, all the debates so far. He’s not afraid.

So who is taking a beating, who is diminished, by this contretemps? Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Fox News because it has chosen to go Mano a Mano as a network against a mere candidate. Megyn Kelly because she’s traded her journalistic credibility for a commentary role she’s ill suited for. As a TV journalist she was passable. As a political commentator she’s a shallow and vituperative egomaniac.

Whether he shows up at the debate or not, Trump wins. If she restrains herself and asks reasonable questions, he wins. If she goes on the attack, he wins and can say, I told you so. At this point he has no downside. If he holds his alternative event for the wounded vets, Fox debate ratings will plummet after the first five minutes.

Thing is, he’s rewriting the rules of presidential campaigning. In that grand double envelopment maneuver, Megyn Kelly is merely a marker on the battlefield map. While she, silly girl that she is, regards herself as a star.

Seriously though. The media are not the gatekeepers who decide for us who is qualified. They are supposed to be the medium by which we voters decide who is worthy of our trust. All the MSM, including Fox News, have clearly forgotten that. And the Trump campaign is as much a revolt against that as against the DC ruling class. In this context, Megyn is like a stripper extra in an episode of the Sopranos.