Trump Catching Up

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a mostly facetious article about six events that could occur to flip the polls in favor of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, and then I assessed how much each would matter. No single occurrence, apart from the preposterously unlikely event of Barack Obama endorsing Trump, seemed to have a ton of power on its own. Non-silly scenarios included the release of new and questionable Clinton e-mails, a month of passable behavior from Trump, and a serious health setback for Clinton.

Donald Trump's reversal on the "birther" controversy is turning attention -- at least for the moment -- from a major shift in the presidential race.

The battle for the White House -- dominated by Hillary Clinton only weeks ago -- is tightening dramatically, a nerve-wracking turn for Democrats that sets up what could be a nail-biter election in 52 days.