SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:21 P.M. ET: 

VIRGINIA – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  A Hampton University poll released Wednesday shows Donald Trump up three-points over Hillary Clinton among Virginia voters, 44 percent to 41 percent — a dramatic shift for a poll that just weeks ago had the Democratic presidential nominee holding a double-digit lead over the Republican.  The Virginia university’s survey results come after the FBI announced Friday the reopening of a probe into Mrs. Clinton’s emails.  It’s the first time Mrs. Clinton has trailed in the Hampton University Center for Public Policy poll this year, and the latest results show Mr. Trump has erased a 12-point deficit since early October and shows a five point swing between the candidates since Thursday, the day before the FBI’s announcement.   We're careful about polls, but this one is a stunner.  We'll look for verification by other Virginia polls in the next three days.  If Virginia falls to Trump, I can't imagine Hillary winning the election because a loss in Virginia would mean there's big trouble for her nationwide.

COLORADO – FROM THE DENVER POST:   Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are tied in Colorado, a new poll shows, entering the final days of the 2016 presidential race.  The University of Denver poll released Wednesday found Clinton and Trump deadlocked at 39 percent in a four-way race, in a survey of registered likely voters conducted Saturday through Monday.  The third-party candidates combined for 15 percent with another 8 percent undecided. The poll’s margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.2 percent.  A head-to-head match between the major party candidates put Clinton at 42 percent and Trump at 41 percent, a statistical tie.  One in five voters in the poll said a Clinton victory is “not legitimate,” meaning they would not accept the results on Election Day.  Floyd Ciruli, a veteran Colorado pollster who conducted the survey, said the numbers are “reflective of the fact that this environment has turned negative for Clinton,” notably the FBI inquiry into additional e-mails with possible ties to her tenure as secretary of state.  Like Virginia, if Trump can turn Colorado red, it may be the ball game.  There is movement all over the country.

ANOTHER VALENTINE TO JOURNALISM – FROM CNS:   More people see the news media--as opposed to Russian hackers or political bosses--as the "primary threat that might try to change the election result," according to a recent Suffolk University/USA Today poll.  Pollsters asked 1,000 likely voters: “What do you think is the primary threat that might try to change the election results?”  45.53% said “the news media”--followed by “the national political establishment” (20.79%); “undecided” (13.42%); “foreign interests such as Russian hackers” (10%); and “local political bosses” (8.95%).  When asked whether they thought the news media was “acting completely of its own accord or coordinating stories with individual campaigns,” less than half of respondents (47.8%) said that the media was reporting on the campaigns independently, while about a third (38.8%) said they believed that the media was coordinating with the campaigns it covered.  Another 12.6% of survey respondents were “undecided” whether there was coordination between the news media and individual campaigns.  Journalism, as I saw firsthand, is a pretty arrogant profession, and that arrogance is preventing it from realizing what a serious credibility problem it has.  Unless problems are corrected, and greater respect shown for readers and viewers, some news organizations may simply disappear.

November 2, 2016