Press -- With No Other Major Races Going On -- Opines Wildly About Virginia Governor's Race

                                            Terry McAuliffe, former Governor of Virginia

Quickly --

 

  ... polls have shown McAuliffe, who previously served as governor from 2014 to 2018, tied with Republican former business executive Glenn Youngkin with the election a week away — and the president's own popularity is on the decline.

     --St Louis Post-Dispatch

 

Here we have a typical article from the press these last days on the race for Virginia governor.  I have been following the various polls on Nate Silver's Five Thirty-eight. I have paid special attention to the aggregate of all polls, which I find to be about the best way to account for the variations in poll results.  

 What the Post-Dispatch (otherwise a pretty good newspaper) does not say is that Youngkin's numbers have also gone down in recent days, and that McAuliffe still leads.  In fact, McAuliffe has led the entire way, although by a smaller margin recently.  

But this can partly be explained by Youngkin becoming more known. It is telling, moreover, that his numbers are deflating slightly.  It seems to me that is not what a candidate wants to see one week before the election.  No wonder Youngkin's approach is increasing in intensity and, dishonesty* -- and ugliness.   

*For example, his latest ad inaccurately accuses Mr. McAuliffe of wanting the government to come betwee parents and their children.  This is simly preposterous.  (I plan to have a source for this soon.)