For Clinton, the temptation might be to play it safe on Wednesday and for the final three weeks of the campaign. If polls move more in her direction, her team will be tempted to try to expand the electoral map — to go after Arizona in a more serious way, for example — assuming they are confident they have nailed down many more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
The election is not over, and given everything that’s happened in this campaign, the unexpected should be considered the possible, if not the expected. Trump’s base is solid, but he seems stuck where he is, apparently unable to expand. He has to make up ground, not just hold the ground he occupies.
That leaves Clinton now as the more likely of the two to become the next president. If that happens, she will be faced with trying to govern a country that is not just divided but also raw with anger and resentment — and teeming with hostility across the political gulf that has opened up.
She has spent the summer and early fall focused primarily on one big thing — making Trump as unpalatable to voters as possible. She has 23 days of campaigning left to answer questions that people still have about her and to make the positive case for a Clinton presidency.
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