This week in the saga

It is election day, and for once he says so plainly: the most important day in American history, stay in line however long it takes. All day he posts the mechanics of it — an hour left in Pennsylvania, an hour left in Michigan, if you are in line by the cutoff they have to let you vote — a man who has spent nine years describing the system telling people how to use it. At half past seven he writes four words to the people still standing outside: stay in line. Then the numbers begin, and they do not wobble. North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin: every swing state falls, and this time the popular vote comes with them. At half past two in the morning in Florida he takes the stage and says it is the greatest political movement of all time. And then, for two whole days, the loudest man in America posts nothing at all. When he comes back on Sunday night it is four sentences of arithmetic: all seven states, seven million votes, three hundred and twelve. The comeback is a number now.