SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

BUT IS IT TRUE? – FROM THE HILL:   Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by just one point in Virginia, according to a new poll from Emerson College that shows a closer race than other recent surveys.  The Emerson surveys out Friday also find Trump with a five-point lead in the swing state of iowa.  Emerson College’s surveys have consistently found Trump running closer to Clinton than other polls concerning the 2016 race. Some pollsters have questioned the polls’ methodology due to the results relying solely on landline telephone interviews.  Emerson College conducted its latest sampling of 800 likely voters in Virginia via landline telephone interviews from Aug. 30-Sept. 1. It has a 3.4 percent margin of error.  Emerson College sampled 600 likely voters in Iowa, meanwhile, via landline telephone interviews during the same period. It sports a 3.9 percent margin of error.  Other polls show Clinton ahead in Virginia by double digits, and that can't be right also.  We present these numbers and ask that they be read with caution.

ARE YOU READY TO TRAVEL? – FROM FOX:   Vacation in Syria? Seriously?  The war-torn nation's Ministry of Tourism released a promotional tourism video featuring Tartus, one of its pristine coastal towns, in hopes of attracting tourists. Missing from the pitch was the fact that a suicide bomber killed dozens on that same beach earlier this summer, and residents of Homs, just 60 miles away, are running from government-sacntioned bombings.  The one-minute, 43-second video-- presumably filmed by an unarmed drone-- is titled “Syria--Always Beautiful.” With festive music and sunseeker on jet skis and frolicking on beaches, the idyllic footage is akin to advertisements Americans might see luring them to a place like Myrtle Beach, S.C.  The video is one of a dozen videos uploaded by the ministry with no mention of the country’s bloody conflict that has killed at least 400,000.   I have no doubt that some student groups from America's left-wing universities are ready to go, bags packed.

THE CLINTON-TRUMP DEBATE MODERATORS – FROM MEDIAITE:   The first debate on September 26 will be moderated by Lester Holt of NBC...Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC will co-moderate the second presidential debate on October 9, which will take place in St. Louis, Missouri...Finally, Fox anchor Chris Wallace will host the third debate on October 19, live from UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada...Elaine Quijano of CBS News will also serve as moderator on October 4, during the debate between vice-presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence. The VP debate will take place in Farmville, Virginia on the campus of Longwood University.  A heavily liberal group, but that's what we expect.  It will be up to Trump to overcome that, but that's now the job of any GOP presidential candidate.

September 2,  2016