Kinder, gentler Donald Trump draws level in one poll, ahead in another

When Donald Trump dumped the establishment-friendly Paul Manafort as his campaign manager and installed Stephen Bannon – head of a right-wing conspiracy website – many assumed the Republican nominee had given up on his nascent effort to “pivot” to the centre and act presidential.

The firebrand Bannon would “let Trump be Trump.”

Instead, we’ve seen Mr Never Wrong express “regret” for “sometimes saying the wrong thing” and adopt a teleprompter at rallies.

And today in comments to Fox News, Mr Trump appeared to back away from one of his signature policies: the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

Instead, he emphasised that he wanted to implement a (so-far-undefined) “fair but firm” policy to deal with undocumented families.

And Buzzfeed reports that “In a Saturday meeting with his newly announced Hispanic advisory council, Donald Trump suggested he is interested in figuring out a ‘humane and efficient’ manner to deal with immigrants in the country illegally.”

Humane? This is not what we expected from the Bannon era.

Neither is the teleprompter, which has so far kept Mr Trump on track, and prevented comments like his magnificent suggestion that intoxicated bar patrons carry guns (a position so extreme it achieved the hitherto unknown feat of concerning the NRA).

But although unexpected, the week or so of Nice Trump (coupled with his first wave of TV advertising, dedicated to attack ads on Hillary Clinton, which have definitely not been nice) seems to be having an impact in the polls.

An LA Times survey has the Republican candidate two points ahead. A UPI/Cvoter poll has Hillary Clinton just 1% ahead.

The Trump comeback can’t be over-stated.

Mrs Clinton still leads 43% to 38% in the New York Times poll-of-polls, and is holding her small but steady lead in battleground states like Florida and Ohio.

It remains an open question whether his braying supporters will be disappointed by Polite Donald or cut him some slack in his efforts to win over the centre and bust through the apparent 40% ceiling on the "angry" vote.

And, of course, you never know when Mad Donald will re-assert himself.

But for now, Reasonable Donald is making quite a go of it.

If he can keep it together and focus on the latest revelations about the Clinton Foundation and alleged donations for favours, things could really turn around.