There's a scene in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King when Frodo and Sam (with Gollum's help) finally destroyed the evil ring in the fire of Mount Doom. There was a moment when everything stopped - Sauron's army of Orcs, Urukhais, and evil Men hesitated, doubt creeping into their eyes. And then Sauron and his dark tower began crumbling and toppling, as his minions flee and his army falls into disarray.
We are in something of the same lull: For the first time, doubt has crept into what passes as the hearts of Democrats about their dark mistress Hillary Clinton. As the New York Times - the rag that urges journalists abandon all pretenses at objectivity in reporting on Trump so as to ensure a Hillary victory - :
[A]s 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?
"It's like someone dropped ice water on the head of America," Julie Gaines, the owner of Fishs Eddy, a home goods store in Manhattan, said of Mr. Trump's increased odds. "Everyone sobered up. This could happen."
The creeping dread has accelerated in recent days, reaching critical levels even by Democratic standards.
Mrs. Clinton became sick. Several polls tightened to the margin of panic, with Mr. Trump overtaking her in surveys in Ohio and Florida. [...]
But even some zealous Clinton defenders have grown frustrated with their candidate, marveling at the prospect of her snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, for which some say they would never forgive her. The campaign's decision last week not to acknowledge Mrs. Clinton's pneumonia until two days after a diagnosis, once video surfaced of her stumbling out of a Sept. 11 memorial service on Sunday, has especially rankled.
Here are some snapshots of Democrats' "tsunami of unease" from NYT 's interviews with "dozens" of Hillary supporters across the country:
- Sonia Ascher, 74, a former campaign volunteer in Portsmouth, N.H.: "They kept it [Hillary's pneumonia] from us. It was just another thing again, another mistake, which she really can't afford right now."
- Maurice Doucet, 55, a software engineer from Portland, Ore., wondered aloud how the race had gotten this close, lamenting Hillary's use of a private email server as secretary of state. "The rational side of my brain goes, 'There's no way people are actually going to switch sides [for Trump]. But the emotional side," he said, his voice trailing off.
- Maurice Doucet, 75, of Manhattan grimaced at the thought of a Trump presidency.
- Larry David, co-creator of "Seinfeld" and star of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," wrote in an email: "The possibility of that [a Trump presidency' is too horrifying to broach. It's like contemplating your own death. I can't go there."
- Linda Donohue, 61, a longtime New Yorker now living in Seattle, anxiously tracks the polls. She said, "We have to have more faith in the American public." Just in case her faith in the American electorate was misplaced, Donohue said, she had retained her Irish citizenship.
- Donohue's friend, Cathi Anderson, also of Seattle, mused that Vancouver was not too far up the road.
- Ramona Gant, 28, a graduate student in Chicago, said she had just renewed her passport with the election in mind.
- Mike Brennan, 67, from Ventura County, Calif., a Republican supporting Hillary, is keeping an eye on the stock market: "If it [the election] looks like it's going to be close, I'll pull my money out."
- Nadia Johnson, 22, a Brooklyn resident, said, "I still believe in humanity," but quickly added a request: Ask her again in November.
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