Great Lakes no help for a struggling Trump on road to 270

Hillary Clinton is starting to spend a little money in Georgia and Arizona, states that any Republican running for president ought to be able to count on. The road to 270 electoral votes - the threshold to clinch the presidency - increasingly looks to be a series of uphill climbs and dead ends for Trump in the usual collection of most competitive states.

A Sanders endorsement of Clinton could still make a big difference

Is the window closing on Bernie Sanders's moment? A number of folks, your humble blogger included , have suggested as much. We've argued that with Democrats seeming to unite behind Hillary Clinton, it's possible that the longer Sanders withholds his endorsement for her in the quest to make the party platform more progressive, the less leverage he'll end up having.