there comes a time after which it is impossible to make any observation about politics, no matter how seemingly innocuous, without its being taken as an attempt to influence the outcome — and usually as an underhanded one. Say that the weather is beautiful, and someone will tweet back at you that you are giving the Democrats too much credit — and someone else will say that you are trying to distract Democrats from the pressing need to organize and vote.

Judging from my emails and so on, that moment seems to have occurred in the last week.