Byron York: “Could there be a clunkier phrase than ‘basket of deplorables’? Hillary Clinton’s assertion that half — or maybe something less than half — of Donald Trump’s supporters are ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it’ struck a lot of observers as not just an odd turn of phrase but politically unwise. You attack your opponent, the idea was, but you don’t attack the voters.”

“But now, a few days later, the brilliance of Clinton’s remark is becoming clearer. Yes, she got a few liberal commentators to take her side and defend the substance of it. But the far bigger benefit is that in the wake of her comment, some media figures decided to devise a ‘deplorables’ quiz for Trump supporters. Is Person X deplorable? How about Person Y? The effect was to pressure Trump supporters not only to agree with Clinton’s larger point but with her precise terminology.”

Washington Post: “The Democratic nominee’s decision to not widely disclose her illness and ignore her doctor’s advice to get rest set in motion perhaps the most damaging cascade of events for her in the general-election campaign — giving fresh ammunition to Republican nominee Donald Trump before their first debate.”

New York Times: “Mrs. Clinton’s inner circle was mindful of both her guardedness and her expectation of loyalty once her mind is made up. And she was optimistic that she could recover over the weekend, when she had only two brief events on her schedule, said the advisers and allies, who insisted on anonymity to disclose private conversations.”

“But Mrs. Clinton’s penchant for privacy backfired. On Monday, her campaign scrambled to reassure voters about her health, a day after she grew visibly weak and was filmed being helped into a van: unsettling images that circulated widely and led her aides to disclose the pneumonia diagnosis two days after the fact.”

Politico: The inside story of Clinton’s sick day