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With friends like that stepping in for her, why didn’t she chillax for the rest of the week? Rather than watch old movies, tee up videos of your husband and Barack for a few tips on how the game is played. Don’t ask questions. Just do it as if you’re learning how to play the violin by rote, Suzuki style. If you do really well, you will get an A.

Clinton is even getting an unintentional assist from Colin Powell, whose e-mails pushed her own technological travails off the front page. That the hack appears to be the work of Russians reminds everyone of Donald Trump’s encouragement of his favorite police state to behave in this way. Skip over the names Powell calls her and go to his calling Trump a “national disgrace” who engaged in a “racist” movement. That’s not the kind of statement the master of diplomacy would have delivered publicly on Clinton’s behalf and she was wise not to step on it. Powell also wrote that since Trump “is in the process of destroying himself,” there’s no need for others to do so.

But holding back takes a lot of discipline, given Trump’s tightening in recent polls. Still, Clinton can’t paint him as a loose cannon or call him a national disgrace every day.

He has a knack for getting into tight spots all on his own. For example, this week, he showed up in Flint, Michigan, where he gave no specifics about how he would fix the water crisis. When he reverted to criticism of Clinton, he was interrupted by the pastor of Bethel United Methodist Church and reminded it wasn’t a campaign event. Trump appeared flustered, “Oh, oh, oh, OK, OK, OK. That’s good,” he stammered. That kind of meekness wouldn’t fly with the likes of Vladimir Putin.