the last time the chicago cubs won the world series was eight years ago, before they fixed the y2k bug. last night the cubs ended the drought, defeating the cleveland indians in game 7 by a 10-inning score of 8-7. what does that mean for the presidential election? it<u+2019>s a question nobody is asking, but pundits are answering it anyway. <u+201c>in the last 8 times a world series went to a game 7 in a prez year, when the al team wins, wh goes gop; when the nl team wins, dems do too,<u+201d> tweeted ken <u+201c>the political junkie<u+201d> rudin , formerly of npr and now a solo practitioner. (for readers who aren<u+2019>t sports junkies, the cubs are a national league team, so hillary clinton will win if the pattern holds.) fivethirtyeight carried a post titled <u+201c>the cubs have a smaller chance of winning than trump does.<u+201d> but that doesn<u+2019>t mean donald trump<u+2019>s chances are north of 100%; the post, by rob arthur, ran on sunday, when the indians still led the series 3 games to 1. follow james on twitter back in may, fivethirtyeight<u+2019>s founder, nate silver , tweeted this prediction: <u+201c>reminder: cubs will win the world series and, in exchange, president trump will be elected 8 days later.<u+201d> though of course that tweet could end up hurting trump by stirring fear among mrs. clinton<u+2019>s supporters, thereby motivating them to go to the polls next thursday. the most chilling prediction came from a twitterer with the handle @raysfangio : he tweeted that on election day 2014 <u+2014>though a year later he predicted the tampa bay rays would win the 2016 series, suggesting that perhaps he just got lucky in <u+2019>14. at any rate, there was no apocalypse, though there was an ad for mrs. clinton warning of one if trump becomes president. actually, the world series and the presidential election are independent events. any connection between the two is coincidence or superstition. well, almost. there were the political ads that ran during last night<u+2019>s game. david martosko , who covers the trump campaign for dailymail.com, observed on twitter that the gop nominee was fortunate in his ad placement amid such an exciting game: <u+201c>another trump ad, the most vicious of the 3 tonight, ran at the end of inning 9 & tore hillary a new one. unbelievable timing. i can<u+2019>t even.<u+201d> meanwhile david freddoso of the washington examiner didn<u+2019>t care for one of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s ads: <u+201c>btw, clinton team, thanks for the ads with trump saying obscene things. had to mute, my kids actually were watching.<u+201d> (if we are not mistaken, freddoso opposes both major-party nominees.) it turns out, too, that both mrs. clinton and trump have troubled back-stories with the cubs. sb nation reports that in december 2015 mrs. clinton predicted that in 2016 both she and the team would win. at 1 a.m. et today she tweeted : <u+201c>they did it! 108 years later and the drought is finally over. way to make history, @cubs.<u+201d> of course voters will make history next week regardless of the outcome, electing either the first female president or the first orange one. mrs. clinton was born in chicago and grew up in a nearby suburb, so you might expect her to be a cubs fan (assuming she cares about sports at all). but when she established official residency in new york so as to run for the u.s. senate in 2000, she spoke often of her devotion to the yankees, as people notes: eight years later, members of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s team were continuing to insist the yanks were her true love: <u+201c>[chris] matthews still falsely suggesting clinton did not become yankees fan until senate run,<u+201d> reads a mediamutters headline from april 2008. by 2014, the chicago tribune reported, she was trying to have it both ways: <u+201c>why do we care who our politicians root for?<u+201d> asks usa today sportswriter charles curtis : normally you wouldn<u+2019>t expect a sportswriter to tell readers not to care so much about sports, but that wouldn<u+2019>t be the first norm to be shattered in the name of opposing trump. at least mrs. clinton<u+2019>s cubbiequivocation isn<u+2019>t as awkward as martha coakley<u+2019>s infamous stumble during the 2010 special election for ted kennedy<u+2019>s former senate seat. as we noted at the time , coakley described curt schilling, who pitched for the boston red sox in their 2004 and 2007 world series victories, as a <u+201c>yankee fan.<u+201d> a coakley spokesman later claimed she had been making a <u+201c>very, very deadpan joke.<u+201d> coakley lost in an upset to republican scott brown, who in turn sought a full term in 2012, only to be defeated by democrat elizabeth warren, who is an indians fan. trump has his own history with the cubs. the team is owned by the ricketts family, the founders of td ameritrade and major republican donors who initially opposed trump<u+2019>s candidacy. in march trump met with the washington post editorial board and had the following exchange with editorial page editor fred hiatt: but the omaha world-herald reported in september that <u+201c>now that trump is the gop nominee .<u+00a0>.<u+00a0>. the ricketts family is circling the partisan wagons and clearly prefers trump to democrat hillary clinton.<u+201d> similarly, the hill reports today that <u+201c>republican voters are finally coming home,<u+201d> just like those two cubs runners in the top of the 10th. worst appeals to authority <u+201c>the <u+2018>unskewed polls<u+2019> guy thinks clinton will win<u+201d><u+2014>headline, puffington host, nov.<u+00a0>2 other than that, the story was accurate <u+201c>because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article erroneously attributed a quotation about the deaths of the two officers. it was president obama<u+2014>not hillary clinton<u+2014>who said <u+2018>sgt. anthony beminio and officer justin martin represented our best, most decent instincts as human beings.<u+2019> (the erroneous attribution also referred incorrectly to mrs. clinton as <u+2018>president clinton.<u+2019> the times, of course, will not know whether to use that title until after tuesday, when the voters decide whether she will be president-elect clinton and eventually president clinton.)<u+201d><u+2014>new york times, nov.<u+00a0>3 generalissimo francisco franco is still dead <u+201c>it looks like hillary clinton<u+2019>s swing state firewall is still holding<u+201d><u+2014>headline, vox, nov.<u+00a0>2 hypothesis and proof<u+2014>i hypothesis and proof<u+2014>ii hypothesis and disproof problem and solution<u+2014>i problem and solution<u+2014>ii problem and solution<u+2014>iii problem and solution<u+2014>iv hey, kids! what time is it? <u+201c>america: it<u+2019>s our moment to get our groove back<u+201d><u+2014>headline, washington times, nov.<u+00a0>2 question and answer<u+2014>i question and answer<u+2014>ii question and answer<u+2014>iii question and answer<u+2014>iv it<u+2019>s always in the last place you look <u+201c>some who saw change in obama find it now in donald trump<u+201d><u+2014>headline, new york times, nov.<u+00a0>3 everything seemingly is spinning out of control <u+201c>florida newspaper apologizes for anti-donald trump bias<u+201d><u+2014>headline, washington times, nov.<u+00a0>3 news you can use <u+201c>want to be more successful? try thinking about death<u+2014>study<u+201d><u+2014>headline, telegraph (london), nov.<u+00a0>2 bottom story of the day <u+201c>there is concern a trump presidency would imperil los angeles olympic bid<u+201d><u+2014>headline, usa today, nov.<u+00a0>3 keeping score there was a bit of a scare during last night<u+2019>s ball game when people on twitter saw what they thought was <u+201c>a kkk sign<u+201d> in the stands. mediaite<u+2019>s josh feldman wrote a post about it, which was updated (and his byline changed to <u+201c>mediate staff<u+201d>) when somebody pointed out that in baseball scoring a k represents a strike-out. meanwhile npr reports six candidates for an open u.s. senate seat from louisiana debated last night, including the infamous david duke (who, we note with satisfaction, is barely registering in the polls). npr<u+2019>s report, since edited, originally contained this sentence : <u+201c>in the debate, duke denied that he is a white supremacist.<u+201d> he must<u+2019>ve struck out three batters. 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 tony lima, bruce goldman, ethel fenig, wes van fleet, david lukas, john sanders, randy lawson, mark zoeller, miguel rakiewicz, andrew quigley, norman blanton, michael smith, rebecca billings, david hallstrom, debbie wells, irene deblasio, michele schiesser, ronnie hiers, eric jensen, james benenson, tobe berkovitz, mike lavender, macrena sailor and demian mclean. if you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com , and please include the url.)
political hardball - wsj
james taranto