FWIW (again with the proper cautions about the strengths and weaknesses of tracker polls) the LA Times/USC tracker has, since days past the day that “Trump just lost” have been included, moved 4 points Clintonward in 3 days, back to where it was start of September when the aggregated actual polls were running Clinton +3 to +4.
Mind you that Fox poll of Ohio (Trump +5) that was after that date both stings and gives me pause.
For the sake of discussion, assume a few more that show Clinton regaining her lost ground by Monday evening - how does that impact what magnitude of outrageous Trump manifests for the debate?
Don’t get worked up over one or two polls. I could also point to the poll that has Clinton well ahead in Virginia, the one that has them essentially tied in North Carolina (which in any realistic scenario is not good news for Broke Donny, who would win NC by several points if he wins the election) or, well, you get the point.
Right now the election is a toss up, in truth. Debate 1 will tell us a lot. Will the polls affect Trump in the debate? To be honest, I don’t see why they would. If a poll shows him winning he’ll find a way to work the comment in but that’s not a big deal. He’ll embark upon whatever plan he wants to embark on, and we really don’t know what it will be.
Trump is vastly ignorant about how a lot of things work and has no interest in finding out, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he thinks being president is basically like being CEO of America. He figures he’ll sit at his fancy desk and bark out an order, and his underlings will make it happen. And if they tell him that order is against the law, he’ll bark at someone else to have the law changed, and they’ll make that happen. And if they still don’t do what he wants, he’ll just fire them and hire someone who won’t tell him no.