Auguries

 

By Baxter

Wow! The Trump Hotel Chicago was struck by three different lightning bolts at 2:14 this morning — at the same time. An omen? There is that last debate tonight.

Of course, the smackdown in Nashville might not make much of a difference. As historian Michael Beschloss points out, more than 47 million Americans have already voted. That makes it tougher for the debate to change minds the way the Reagan-Carter meetup did in 1980.

But everyone's on the prowl for Presidential portents anyway. Nevertheless, there's actually some interesting stuff going on at the Congressional district level — none of it good for Republicans.

Back in 2016, the Clinton campaign saw the same worrying signs for Democrats in CDs across the nation. Now, the situation is flipped. As Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report explained, "Trump is underperforming his 2016 margins by eight to 10 points in most competitive districts. If Trump won a district by three last time, he’s probably losing it by six this time. It’s a pretty consistent pattern."

This trickles down to other races. Take just one state as an example: In Iowa, Republicans were confident they could flip two and maybe all three Democratic seats in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional districts. Today, though, Monmouth has the Democrats — Abby Finkenauer, Rita Hart and Cindy Axne — comfortably ahead. The pollster also notes that while JD Scholten trails the Republican nominee in Steve King's soon-to-be-former district, it's only by six points. It was 20 points in August.

And of course, Joni Ernst is in trouble in the Iowa Senate race.

These are numbers you see in a butt-kicking election from the top down. Yes, we haven't won yet. There are 12 days to go, and the Russians are out there. But Team Trump has to be wondering how to dodge lightning bolts. We cats PURR.

(PHOTO: Barry Butler Photography)