don<u+2019>t worry, hillary. even though you<u+2019>re under fbi investigation, everything<u+2019>s going to be fine. that<u+2019>s the word from the daily beast<u+2019>s michael tomasky with seven days and five minutes till election day. oh sure, <u+201c>some polls out monday had the race a bit closer,<u+201d> tomasky allows. <u+201c>but one, taken half before the comey announcement and half after, had her up the same 7 percentage points she was before comey intervened.<u+201d> that would be the nbc news/surveymonkey tracking poll, conducted no doubt by three wise monkeys. tomasky further notes of the polls that <u+201c>all had clinton still ahead.<u+201d> gulp. this morning<u+2019>s abc news/washington post tracking poll shows donald trump with a one-point lead, 46% to 45%. this survey has jumped around a lot; it had mrs. clinton up by 12 points as recently as nine days ago. mrs. clinton leads trump among voters experiencing ennui; 45% of her voters are <u+201c>very enthusiastic<u+201d> to 53% of his, abc reports. follow james on twitter there are other trump-trending polls as well. the los angeles times has mrs. clinton trailing by 3.6 points, 46.9% to 43.3%. this poll has been an outlier in that it<u+2019>s generally shown a close race and often shown trump ahead, even when mrs. clinton had big leads in most other polls. the new york times<u+2019>s nate cohn blames that divergence on <u+201c>a 19-year-old black man in illinois<u+201d> and he makes a surprisingly strong case. be that as it may, when cohn wrote that last month, even the l.a. times had mrs. clinton ahead, by 0.5 points. even if the poll tends to overestimate trump support, changes over time would still be significant. the realclearpolitics average has mrs. clinton down to a 2.2-point lead, and all the constituent polls (including the abc/post one) were conducted at least in part before friday. <u+201c>it might be too little too late, but with hillary clinton<u+2019>s presidential campaign once again awash in controversy, the final days of the 2016 white house race are suddenly coming up trump,<u+201d> observes politico<u+2019>s louis nelson . then again, it might not. trump could actually win this. <u+201c>if there is still a trump election comeback scenario, it is beyond this columnist<u+2019>s imaginative capacity,<u+201d> this columnist wrote 2<u+00bd> weeks ago in the wake of some accusations that looked bad for trump. james comey<u+2019>s october surprise, courtesy of anthony weiner, took us by surprise; we guess we need to learn to be more creative. the abc/post release explains the trumpward shift: in other words, comey (intentionally or not) prompted voters who aren<u+2019>t partisans of mrs. clinton to focus on her corruption and the sheer weirdness that surrounds her, making trump look good by comparison. trump skeptics will note that the rcp averages still show him behind in most of the swing states <u+2014>including even arizona , which wasn<u+2019>t supposed to be a swing state. but state polls are taken less frequently than national ones, and hence often are a lagging indicator. trump has maintained slim leads in iowa and ohio , and now is up in florida too. in an ominous sign for mrs. clinton, the hill reports on a new poll from the new hampshire journal suggesting she may not be able to take that state for granite: trump leads there, 45% to 43%. (mrs. clinton is up by 5.6 points in the rcp average , which doesn<u+2019>t include the new survey.) rcp<u+2019>s rebecca berg and alexis simendinger report that trump plans to <u+201c>broaden his gaze in the final week of the presidential campaign, expanding from the central battleground states to others currently favoring hillary clinton<u+201d>: if the trump campaign looks confident<u+2014>quite possibly overconfident<u+2014>mrs. clinton and her supporters look a bit panicked. they spent the weekend attacking comey, which is both understandable and typical clinton behavior. but comey isn<u+2019>t on the ballot, and voters focused on him aren<u+2019>t focused on trump. the daily caller reports longtime clinton operative james carville expanded the anti-comey attack into a red-baiting conspiracy theory: defenders of mrs. clinton have also pulled out the <u+201c>woman card,<u+201d> to hilarious effect. writing at time.com, jill filipovic blames the democratic nominee<u+2019>s problems on <u+201c>badly behaved men<u+201d>; also at time.com, robin lakoff , a berkeley linguist, blames mrs. clinton<u+2019>s email scandal itself on <u+201c>sexism<u+201d>: well, lakoff just did. and now you can see why nobody else would want to. writing in the new york times, joanna naples-mitchell also makes mrs. clinton<u+2019>s close aide huma abedin out to be the victim of a man: who knew the weiners were in an arranged marriage? even the president is crying sexism, the associated press reports: that<u+2019>s especially rich given that the democrats have been at pains to portray trump as moody and emotional. anyway, all this suggests mrs. clinton is not the shoo-in we assumed her to be this time last week. that<u+2019>s not to say trump is certain, or even likelier than not, to win. the polls are still close, and the democratic turnout operation could make the difference. and while there definitely won<u+2019>t be another october surprise, there<u+2019>s still time for a november one. metaphor alert <u+201c>with the clock running out and the media<u+2019>s attention on the fbi decision, clinton has to thread the needle to make her final sale <u+2014>even as smoke from the scandal looms .<u+201d><u+2014>jonathan easley and amie parnes, thehill.com, nov.<u+00a0>1 we blame george w. bush <u+201c>female ceos get blamed more than male counterparts<u+201d><u+2014>headline, the wall street journal, nov.<u+00a0>1 generalissimo francisco franco is still dead <u+201c>trump is still trump as foes plunge into final campaign week<u+201d><u+2014>headline, associated press, oct.<u+00a0>31 hypothesis and proof make that 11 problem and solution<u+2014>i problem and solution<u+2014>ii but not of spelling them <u+201c>rapper behind song <u+2018>sell drugz<u+2019> is accused of selling drugs<u+201d><u+2014>headline, associated press, nov.<u+00a0>1 the lonely lives of scientists <u+201c>chubby older fathers are more attractive to women and live longer, scientists say<u+201d><u+2014>headline, telegraph (london), oct.<u+00a0>31 hey, kids! what time is it? <u+201c>mel gibson: <u+2018>it<u+2019>s time hollywood forgave me<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d><u+2014>headline, agence france-presse, nov.<u+00a0>1 clinton endorses variety<u+2014>now that would be news <u+201c>variety endorses clinton<u+201d><u+2014>headline, thehill.com, nov.<u+00a0>1 look out below! <u+201c>cnn dumped donna brazile. it should keep going.<u+201d><u+2014>headline, politico.com, oct.<u+00a0>31 it<u+2019>s always in the last place you look <u+201c>plant blamed for salem witch trials found growing in utah<u+201d><u+2014>headline, ksl-tv website (salt lake city), oct.<u+00a0>31 everything seemingly is spinning out of control <u+201c>kim kardashian<u+2019>s month off social media has led to introspection for the reality show family<u+201d><u+2014>headline, los angeles times, oct.<u+00a0>31 bottom story of the day <u+201c>john kasich stays true to his vow, writes in john mccain over trump on ballot<u+201d><u+2014>headline, mediaite, oct.<u+00a0>31 home-ophobia halloween has come again to yale, a connecticut university made famous for last year<u+2019>s moral panic over halloween costumes. the yale daily news reports the new master of silliman college, laurie santos, <u+201c>transformed her home into a haunted house<u+201d>: it<u+2019>s hard to believe, but there was a time when people that age were legally considered adults<u+2014>even drafted and sent to war. follow @jamestaranto on twitter. join fans of best of the web today on facebook. subscribe to the best of the web email with one click. (carol muller helps compile best of the web. thanks to irene deblasio, miguel rakiewicz, michael segal, ethel fenig, debbie wells, epeius achaean, tony lima, michele schiesser, art siegel, mara gold, eric jensen, david guthrie, paul wood, mordecai bobrowsky, glen hoffing, fred thorne, bruce goldman, ed lasky, ben johnson, michael smith and sean kelly. if you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com , and please include the url.)
hey, trump could win! - wsj
james taranto