SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:   

TRUMP OFF MESSAGE AGAIN – FROM WAPO:   ANHEIM, Pa. — Donald Trump's campaign announced Saturday evening that the candidate would soon deliver a nine-sentence critique of comments Hillary Clinton made months ago about many of the millennials supporting her primary rival, Bernie Sanders. It was an attempt to latch onto a new headline in hopes of finally escaping the controversies that had consumed his week.  It didn’t work.  It took Trump nearly 25 minutes to read the brief statement because he kept going off on one angry tangent after another — ignoring his teleprompters and accusing Clinton of not being “loyal” to her husband, imitating her buckling at a memorial service last month, suggesting that she is “crazy” and saying she should be in prison. He urged his mostly white crowd of supporters to go to polling places in "certain areas" on Election Day to "watch" the voters there. He also repeatedly complained about having a "bum mic" at the first presidential debate and wondered if he should have done another season of “The Apprentice.”  He cannot take the pressure.  He is losing the election single-handedly.  The next presidential debate is a week from tonight.  If he cannot get his act together by then, I fear, and so do other writers, that he'll be toast.  Hillary cannot win an election, but Trump can lose one.  Same result.

THIS DOESN'T SOUND RIGHT – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:   CAIRO — Two men who found a travel bag containing a bomb on a Manhattan street last month — and then walked off with the bag but left the bomb — were not just employees of EgyptAir but in-flight security officers for the carrier, two officials at the airline said on Friday.  Surveillance footage showed two men finding the bag on West 27th Street on the evening of Sept. 17, soon after a bomb exploded on West 23rd Street, injuring 31 people and triggering terrorism fears across the region.  In the video, the men were seen pulling from the travel bag a white plastic bag that contained a pressure cooker connected to wires and a mobile phone. They left the white bag on the sidewalk and walked away with the travel bag. The bomb did not explode, and investigators have said that the men may have inadvertently disabled the device.  The two men, identified as Hassan Ali and Abou Bakr Radwan, had flown to New York from here, serving as unarmed security guards on the flight, the officials said.  The bag they found contained one of several homemade bombs that prosecutors say were planted that day in New York and New Jersey by Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan-born American citizen.  They were security guards and didn't recognize a bomb?  Gimme a break, would you?  And, by coincidence, they found the bomb?  I want to know more about these two birds.

ANOTHER ODD DEVELOPMENT – FROM THE HILL:   WikiLeaks has canceled an unknown announcement it had planned for next week due to security concerns, according to an NBC News reporter.  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was scheduled to make an announcement Tuesday from the balcony of London's Ecuadorian Embassy. It was expected to be connected to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.  However, NBC News reporter Jesse Rodriguez reported that because of security concerns at the embassy, the event has been canceled. WikiLeaks hasn't said whether the announcement will be rescheduled.  Over the summer, Wikileaks published a trove of emails which appeared to show top officials at the Democratic National Committee planning how to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign.   Assange has promised to release more emails from the massive hack of the Democratic National Committee.  Last month, Assange said more Clinton leaks would be coming soon.  What security concerns could there be?  Obviously, the Clinton people would prefer that Assange release nothing, but...security concerns?  Seems to me this may be a major story waiting to break out.

October 2,  2016