I voted early yesterday. Ten minutes before the City Hall polling place was to open a line was forming. Quickly 50 or 60 people joined the line. The stream was constant. To the extent that there was conversation, it was in dribs and drabs about this exciting new opportunity to cast ballots before election day. But in the wake of FBI Director James Comey’s late Friday afternoon announcement of the latest October surprise, the mood in our strongly pro-Hillary hometown was somber. Voters, it seemed, wanted to get this disgusting Presidential campaign behind them.

A week after the media had all but declared Hillary Clinton the winner, a week in which the gap between Clinton and Trump had steadily narrowed, we now find Clinton’s slim lead in new national polling well within the margin of error. Comey’s decision to announce the ambiguous discovery of new emails on a server used by Clinton right hand Huma Abedin and her pervert husband, Anthony Weiner, has rocked the boat. This, even though Comey himself couldn’t – or wouldn’t – say that there was anything “significant” in this new email batch.

Trump and Clinton may both say they want full disclosure of the emails as quickly as possible, which probably won’t happen before the election. But it is Trump who can repeatedly sing the refrain of “crooked Hillary,” turning attention away from himself  He’s playing this new development (though certainly no new information) for all it’s worth.  His message appears to be resonating especially with Independent voters. And it could affect the outcome of the election.

Was Comey playing partisan politics or engaging in a narcissistic adventure? To give him the benefit of the doubt, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Whether or not he revealed his new discovery, he would be attacked, even though it is more customary not to discuss investigations until they are concluded and certainly not customary to introduce inconclusive material 11 days before an election. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who reportedly opposed release, was probably unable to intervene because she was thoroughly compromised by her 30-minute “impromptu” tarmac conversation with Bill Clinton in Phoenix in June. (Yet another reminder how easily Bill Clinton’s behavior can sabotage his wife’s efforts. Think “crazy Obamacare.”)

The airwaves this morning are all about what Clinton and Trump should do in this last nine days before election day. Whoever is elected will surely be the most unpopular President ever chosen to lead this country. Whoever is elected will have a gargantuan challenge to bind our nation’s wounds or even govern effectively. But it remains clear to me that, whatever Hillary Clinton’s flaws, and they are many, she still far surpasses her opponent in fitness to serve in the office, in commitment to American values of inclusiveness, in understanding of how government should work and in knowledge and experience.

Will that be enough to propel her to be our next President?  You tell me.

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