INEZ FLETSCHER STEPMAN: A Former NeverTrumper Casts Her Ballot.

In 2016, I voted for the deceased William F. Buckley, Jr. for president, on the assumption that if he won, he would demand a recount.

Even more than my disgust at his vulgarities about opponents and praise for authoritarian heads of state, I worried Donald Trump would govern as a New York liberal; a Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger type, if you will, whose only accomplishment would be to force the GOP to go along with left-wing policy.

On that score, and I suspect largely thanks to the hysterical and hateful response to his election from the left, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Other former NeverTrumpers have also seen the light, and now publicly pronounce his successful conservative record, from his nominees for the federal bench and war against critical race theory to his shift to a Jacksonian foreign policy, and even that Paul Ryan-est of victories, a tax cut.

Best of all, Trump stood athwart the left and shouted, with typical Queens flair, stop. And he did so, truth be told, more successfully than the sentiment’s original author and my 2016 presidential candidate.

Read the whole thing.

DON’T GET COCKY: The Latest Poll Out of Iowa Foreshadows Disaster for Biden.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: How Many Kids Can Antifa Threaten to Rape and Murder Before CNN Notices?

Insanity Wrap needs to know: How are you feeling about Trump’s chances tomorrow?

Answer: We’re feeling pretty good — and hoping we didn’t just jinx things.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• Democrats frighten minority kids into silence, because antiraicsm or something.
• The funniest Trump Truck you’ll see all day.
• More trunalimunumaprzure than you can shzazasilipat.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE: Joe Biden makes another alarming gaffe and correction: ‘I think we can win back the House!’

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Shut Down DC Targets Conservative Organizations as ‘Trump Boosters.’

Shut Down D.C., a progressive group that says it uses “strategic direct action to advance justice and hold officials accountable,” is targeting at least 27 conservative organizations in the Washington metro area as Election Day approaches.

An interactive map from Shut Down D.C. lists as “Trump boosters” a range of organizations, including The Heritage Foundation, the parent organization of The Daily Signal.

Other groups listed include Americans for Prosperity, Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, Leadership Institute, National Taxpayers Union, Republican Jewish Coalition, and UrbanCURE. (The complete list is below.)

Shut Down D.C.’s map contains the address, phone number, and website for each listed group. It also shows the location of media organizations, technology companies, and government offices in Washington, D.C.

The left-wing group’s website boasts that “we’re getting ready for an uprising. Now’s the time to get involved so we’re ready to hit the streets.”

I get the feeling it isn’t really the streets they want to hit.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Enemy of the People MSM Suddenly Worried About Violence It Spent 6 Months Ignoring. “No Sunday news cycle would be complete without CNN’s Brian ‘Poppin’ Fresh’ Stelter saying the dumbest thing. Doughboy wondered aloud if all of these cities that have been plagued by leftist violence that was cheered on by elected Democrats were worried because President Trump is ‘attacking the election’.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Richard Fernandez:

Not that long ago, trifling with important institutions was understood as dangerous for society.

Related: Ric Grenell slays:

THE 41% SOLUTION: 41% Wrecks Dems’ Confidence, Biden Camp’s Narrative.

I’ve been covering American politics for a long time and I can’t remember a number that so dramatically altered the political community’s perception of a presidential campaign as that number did, last night, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

The source of the number was The Iowa Poll, which has been the gold standard for statewide polling in the United States for decades. The number itself was the percentage of likely voters in Iowa supporting Joe Biden’s candidacy for president.

President Trump’s number was 48%, which put him ahead in the “horse race” by 7 percentage points. There was nothing really remarkable about that, in context. Mr. Trump won the state in 2016 by (roughly) nine percentage points.

What was remarkable was Biden’s 41%. What made it doubly disconcerting was the way The Des Moines Register (accurately) described the poll results:

“Republican President Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa as Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden has faded…”

Faded! Could there be a more terrible word in the last week of a presidential campaign?

More at the link, with the usual “don’t get cocky” disclaimer.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED BY ALL THE SMARTEST POLLSTERS THAT THE BLUE WALL WAS WELL-NIGH IMPENETRABLE (AGAIN): Joe Biden goes all in on rebuilding ‘blue wall’ in campaign closing stretch.

ALFRED THAYER MAHAN-APPROVED: As its term winds down, Trump’s White House plots a major naval expansion.

The emphasis comes amid Trump’s increasing focus on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and other so-called forever wars. At the same time, the rhetoric from his national security and economic teams has increasingly focused on shipbuilding and growing the Navy.

In interviews, more than half a dozen senior White House officials and aides described to Defense News an emerging maritime strategy that combines pulling back from long conflicts on land with growing the fleet. The new direction is viewed as a way to directly counter Chinese expansion while adding more industrial jobs to the economy. But analysts, who see little potential for defense spending increases in the wake of a staggering coronavirus-relief spending binge, say such a plan would cost tens of billions of dollars and could necessitate big cuts to other armed services.

To the president’s national security adviser, however, continuing to spend money on long-running counterterrorism conflicts in the face of a rising Chinese maritime threat is foolhardy.

Indeed.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Is It Time For A Big Fleet of Small Ships?

UM, THANKS? Joe Biden has finally disclosed who is raising him big money just days before Election Day. “Biden only released the names after 90 million people have already voted.”

WHATEVER: Maxine Waters Calls Black Trump Voters ‘Shameful,’ Says She Will ‘Never Ever Forgive Them.’

PJ MEDIA’S BRYAN PRESTON IS LIVE ON NEWSMAX AT 1:45PM TODAY.

ROSETTA WEPT: Yikes! Can You Translate Biden’s Latest Gibberish?

HERE WE GO AGAIN? Anti-Trumpers Worry About a Potential Repeat of 2016.

GODWIN ALERT: Disgusting! Biden-Harris Uses Hitler Footage in Campaign Ad.

HMM:

Stay tuned…

THE CONSTITUTION GENERALLY AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT SPECIFICALLY WERE WRITTEN TO STOP WOULD-BE TYRANTS LIKE JOE BIDEN: Biden Pledges to Gut Religious Freedom Protections, Saying They Give ‘Hate’ a ‘Safe Harbor.’

DON’T GET COCKY: Forget the polls, these Rust Belters offer real election insight.

Fran Coombs, managing editor of Rasmussen Reports, sees the numbers this year as very similar to the 2016 presidential election, when Hillary Clinton and Trump were neck-and-neck to the end.

In its daily national tracking poll Wednesday, Rasmussen had Trump ahead of Biden by one point for the second day running, after trailing by as much as 12.

The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points, but the trajectory is in the right direction.

Coombs says polls have picked up a “level of Trump hatred [that is] is mind-boggling” and accounts for a high “shy” Trump vote. Republicans are 10 to 15 points less likely than Democrats to divulge their voting intentions.

Democratic talk about “truth and reconciliation councils” and the like seems to be skewing the polls, which in turn skews Democrats’ ability to make sound campaigning decisions.

It’s almost as though they’re trying to lose.

BOOM: Hunter’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Email Implicating Joe Biden Just BLEW UP.

HEH: Trump supporter follows Biden campaign bus all over Houston in hearse called the ‘Democrat Cemetery Vote Collector.’

TYLER O’NEIL: 7 Key Corruption Questions Joe Biden Must Answer After FBI Bombshell.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Joe Biden’s Most Extraordinary Projectile Word Vomit Ever.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: When Joe Biden promises that he will “reduce prescription drug crisis experts acknowledge,” what the hell is that supposed to mean?

Answer: We don’t know, but we do have the video.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• AP does CYA for KKK
• Marrianne Williamson, Biblical scholar.
• Literally the worst tweet of all time.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

OOPS: Watch a self-driving Roborace car drive directly into a wall.

EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF ‘AND’: Is Jack Dorsey a Pathological Liar or Has He Simply Lost All Control Over Twitter?

THAT WOULD BE YUGE: Will Trump Get One-Third of the Black Vote?