Simply put: Is there anyone left to persuade?

We know the number of undecided voters in the hyper-polarized race is quite low. In the RealClearPolitics average polling of a four-candidate race, fewer than than 6 percent of voters are undecided. In the Pollster.com three-way race, an average of 5.6 percent remain undecided. Not all of the support for each candidate is firm, of course, but real persuadables are a rare commodity and may never decide to vote.

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Moreover, Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute writes: “National exit polls from past presidential elections show that most voters decided how they would vote more than a month before Election Day. According to the American National Election Study, whose data go back to 1948, no more than 9 percent have made their decision on Election Day.” In the past four presidential elections, between 10 and 15 percent said they made up their minds “last month”/in October, and between 69 and 78 percent of voters said they had made up their minds before that (i.e. September or earlier). If the pattern holds in this election, a large percentage of voters will either vote or have made up their minds in the next week or so.

And finally, Clinton has been able to extend the shelf life of both the first presidential debate and the vice-presidential debate by building on the Trump-Pence team’s errors. The campaign is still putting out video highlighting Mike Pence’s ongoing struggle to deny the undeniable:

That in essence eats up time, not allowing Trump the opportunity to shift the message back to friendlier terrain.

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Sunday presents another opportunity for Clinton to win on the debate stage — and/or in the post-debate analysis. If she can use that to fill up the debate coverage until Oct. 19, the last scheduled debate date (if Trump shows up), the campaign is virtually over.

We have a few takeaways from all this.

First, the Clinton campaign has dominated the debate period, which coincides with the time during which most voters make up their minds. Team Trump is playing checkers (poorly, at that) while Clinton’s crew is playing 3-D chess in the post-debate spin game. This is among the most vivid example of the relative skill of the two camps.

Second, beginning about now, the name of the game is turnout and motivating one’s followers. Only one candidate has a real ground game — and it’s not Trump.

Third, we have a major hurricane story developing, one that could throw the race off the front pages at least in a critical state or two (Florida, North Carolina). Just ask Mitt Romney or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie about this. That’s another way the clock runs down.