The Stretch Drive (2)

So the polls are “tightening,” but a lot of folk on the left are comforting themselves today not to worry, everything’s fine, there’s no “Brexit surprise” coming here. But just in case, better roll out a fresh groping accusation, this time from Miss Finland, 2006:

A former Miss Finland has accused U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump of groping her in 2006 when she was representing the country in the Miss Universe beauty contest.

Although Thomson-Reuters and other wire services are running with this, where does this story come from?

Ninni Laaksonen told the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper that the Republican presidential nominee had grabbed her behind before she appeared on a television show in New York with other contestants.

“He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?’,” Laaksonen was quoted as saying in the newspaper. . .

Laaksonen could not be reached for comment on Friday.

In other words, no one in the media has checked out this story, but is running with a short squib from a newspaper no one has ever heard of.

Is this the best they’ve got? Maybe they should have held off that Access Hollywood tape a couple more weeks.

I suspect liberals are in a state of near panic again, wondering about these tightening polls and what may yet come from Wikileaks around next Wednesday or Thursday. We’ve seen this pattern for months. Trump takes a hit for a damaging story or mistake on his part, and then starts to rebound. It is still said that if the 1968 election had lasted one more week, Hubert Humphrey would have overtaken Richard Nixon, as Humphrey closed fast and hard in that race. Maybe so, though I am not sure there is compelling evidence for that. The biggest problem for pollsters in this race is estimating turnout by various subgroups. I expect that millennial turnout will be at a record low.

The other interesting news item of the morning is this:

trump-wire

There’s also this, breaking right now: “FBI Is Re-opening Clinton E-Mail Investigation.” From Bloomberg, but no details yet. I’m skeptical.

Oh, and in the interest of complete reporting, here’s Ninni Laaksonen:

ninni-1

Now if she just carried a gun, she wouldn’t have to worry about Bill Clinton groping her. And she’d make Power Line on Saturday morning, too.

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