The real target of that outreach, it seemed obvious, was the subset of independents and even Republican voters who were wavering on supporting Trump, a hesitation that was clearly linked to Trump's perceived problems with nonwhite voters. Large chunks of his own party viewed him as bigoted or racist -- and those voters were skeptical of his candidacy.

So how'd that outreach to black and Hispanic voters go? The new Washington Post-ABC News poll allows us to see. And it went about as well as expected.

The margin between Trump and Hillary Clinton in polling that included the four major candidates shows that white voters did indeed shift a bit back toward Trump -- but nonwhite voters moved further away.

The change since our August poll among white registered voters was from a 9- to an 11-point advantage for Trump. Among nonwhites? From a 52- to 58-point lead for Clinton.

To get a significant sample of black voters, we can look at all American adults. Doing so suggests that blacks shifted about three points more heavily toward Clinton -- a margin-of-error move but hardly the sort of momentum toward Trump that he might have hinted was coming. But white women and especially white men moved toward Trump, the latter by six points.

As our main article about the poll notes, the split within the white voter base that should continue to concern Trump is by education level. White men without college degrees continue to support Trump more strongly than any other group, and he made important headway with white women with college degrees -- a group that votes heavily. But his support among white men with college degrees continued to sink. That's a group that Republicans have won in each of the last nine elections, including by 21 points in 2012.

This shows the scale of Trump's problem. His position in the polls has improved. But he continues to need to expand his base if he's to have a real shot at challenging Clinton's lead. Trump spent a month putting a focus on black voters and dallying briefly with softening his position on immigration in an apparent attempt to build a strong relationship with Hispanics.