Donald Trump doesn’t do understatement, so it was predictable on Friday evening that he should liken to Watergate the reopening of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s supposedly insecure use of her private email server. But this was more than the latest twist in an unpleasant campaign that has little to do with policy or a vision for America, and much to do with the character defects, real or imagined, of the two principal candidates. This could change a race that appeared, otherwise, to be over.

Since Mr Trump faced embarrassment with the disclosure of a tape of him expressing repulsive sentiments about women, followed by a parade of females of varying degrees of credibility alleging he had attempted sexual improprieties with them, the Clinton camp had treated their victory as a fait accompli. The opinion polls had shown a narrowing, but still significant, gap between the candidates in the days before the FBI announcement: Mr Trump was around five points behind in RealClearPolitics’s national poll average on Friday morning. Now, voters have a Democratic candidate who, if elected, could before long be on trial and, if convicted, in jail.