... With an economy that is this strong, Republicans are hoping to enjoy a bounce that undercuts the negative news. If Americans vote their pocketbooks, the GOP might just contain some of the damage going into the midterm at a minimum -- holding onto their majority even if it's narrower. But just like in 2016, when the strong economy did not benefit the party in power, this midterm might be different. It is not clear that the economy will be enough to save the Republicans from the damage that President Trump has caused them through his time in office. 

How can this be? Historically, midterms have often gone poorly for the party of the president irrespective of economic conditions. In 1966, the economy was very strong but President Lyndon Johnson's Democrats saw the size of their majority shrink when they lost 47 seats in the House. 

The economy also was growing in 1994, but that didn't save President Bill Clinton from seeing Democrats lose control of the House and Senate. In 2014, the last time the economy was doing as well as today, Republicans regained control of the Senate.

Now, the multiple investigations into the Trump administration are continuing and accelerating. They are starting to produce some pretty big revelations, including the suggestion that then-candidate Donald Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting where Donald Trump Jr. and Russian officials talked about getting possible dirt on rival Hillary Clinton. The President has denied that he knew about the meeting in advance. 

It is likely that over the coming months, some of the benefits that a President and his party should naturally expect to enjoy from a booming economy might be undercut by the fears that this administration is corrupt and compromised. Voters might fear that the information we already have about wrongdoing is just the tip of the iceberg. And the images and sounds of Helsinki will not disappear.

While many Republicans still approve of President Trump, a majority of the country consistently does not. 

The President has also turned this election into a referendum about American values. He has taken such polarizing stances on a series of key issues -- hard-line immigration policies, his mockery of #MeToo, and his intransigence on gun control -- that the energy driving his opponents will be stronger than the fact that economic times are good. 

The irony of Trump is that his overwhelming and perpetual presence in the public square, with controversial and inflammatory rhetoric, might make it much harder for Republicans to keep voter attention on the economy. GOP candidates' connection to Trump has made itdifficult for them to win over suburban moderate districts.

As he attacks identity politics, more than anyone Trump has raised the questions of what is our national identity and what does this nation stand for in 2018? Voters will have to go to the ballot box, which hopefully won't be hacked, and make a decision about what kind of country they believe in. Do the values that President Trump champions reflect the best of the nation's ideals in 2018 or does the nation need a powerful check, through a Democratic Congress, to move us in a very different direction? ...