New York Times: “For both parties, every election can feel like the most vital of a lifetime, the one day standing between a still-proud nation and its imminent demise. Among liberals, there is an especially rich tradition of bed-wetting, as even some practitioners call it, at the faintest sign of shakiness from their candidate.”

“But as Hillary Clinton lurches toward Election Day, her supporters at times seem overwhelmed by a tsunami of unease, exacerbated by Mrs. Clinton’s bout of pneumonia and a slow-footed acknowledgment of the illness. They are confronting a question they had assumed, just a few weeks ago, they would not need to consider in a race against the most unpopular presidential nominee in modern times: Could Mrs. Clinton actually blow this?”

Nate Silver: Democrats should panic… if the polls still look like this in a week.

Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:

Ohio: Trump 42%, Clinton 42% (OnMessage)

Florida: Clinton 46%, Trump 43% (Global Strategy Group)

Gary Johnson and Jill Stein have missed the cut for the first presidential debate, The Hill reports.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the only presidential candidates who will participate in the first debates.

Matt Taibbi: “No doubt about it, the country is in a brutal spot right now. We are less than two months from the possibility of one of the dumbest people on the planet winning the White House. And it seems that all anyone’s talked about this week, whether around the water cooler or on TV news, Twitter or Facebook, is the lung capacity of Hillary Clinton.”

“That sucks. But it’s not all the media’s fault. This is classic horse-race stuff, and if you’re getting it, it’s at least in part because you spent decades asking for it.”

“The campaign has devolved over time into an entertainment program, a degrading and vicious show where the contestants win the nuclear launch codes instead of a date with a millionaire. Under the rules of this reality series which media consumers turn into a gigantic hit every four years, collapsing in front of a cell-phone camera at a 9/11 memorial service is more important than a dozen position papers.”

“It just is. You proved it when you clicked on that video of the episode last weekend and didn’t read a compare-and-contrast piece on, for instance, the candidates’ banking policies.”

The Washington Post‘s David Fahrenthold sent this to Donald Trump’s campaign:

I noted that today Mr. Trump said he believes President Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate is legitimate. That makes this a story for me now: Can you provide details of where and when he will donate the $5 million Mr. Trump promise to give to charity?

“Hillary Clinton’s once-commanding lead among young voters has collapsed as millennials look toward third-party candidates, a development that helps explain why the presidential race has tightened substantially in recent weeks,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Young voters are a pillar of the Democratic coalition, and the Clinton campaign is making a new effort to keep them in the fold. On Friday, First Lady Michelle Obama will campaign for Mrs. Clinton on a college campus in the battleground state of Virginia.”

“Sen. Bernie Sanders, a sensation among younger voters during the Democratic primaries, will campaign for Mrs. Clinton this weekend, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a liberal icon, will attend campaign events this weekend at two Ohio universities.”

For members: The Obama Coalition Isn’t Coming Together — Yet

Donald Trump reversed himself and acknowledged the fact that President Obama was born in the United States, the AP reports.

Said Trump: “Not to mention her in the same breath but Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America great again.”

Rich Lowry: “If you aren’t seriously contemplating the biggest black-swan event in American electoral history, you aren’t paying attention.”

“Fifteen months ago, Donald Trump was a reality-TV star with a spotty business record and a weird penchant for proclaiming he was on the verge of running for president. Now, he’s perhaps a few big breaks and a couple of sterling debate performances away from being elected 45th president of the United States.”

“And, no, stranger things haven’t happened.”