Aaron Blake: “The events of last week seemed as though they might be playing into President Trump’s hands. Trump and his allies have long sought to use unrest at racial-justice demonstrations to argue for his reelection, and on the eve of the Republican National Convention, another police shooting of a black man in Kenosha, Wis., reignited those scenes. For four nights afterward, the GOP pushed the issue hard, with some wagering that it would change the race. It didn’t really do much, if anything, according to the earliest high-quality polls we have.”

“New national polls released Wednesday morning from highly respected pollsters Ann Selzer and Suffolk University show the race remaining largely as it has been in recent weeks. Joe Biden led by eight points (49-41) in the Grinnell College/Selzer poll, which was conducted Wednesday through Sunday, including the final two days off the convention. Biden also led by seven points (50-43) in the USA Today/Suffolk poll, which was conducted starting the day after the convention. Each poll is completely in line with Biden’s average lead in the race, which hovered between seven and eight points for most of August. Previous Suffolk polls show Biden with a slightly larger lead, but the last one was from June, when his 12-point lead was also similar to what was then his average lead. The race has narrowed slightly since then, but that was the case before the conventions and Kenosha.”