NEW YORK — Friends of Nate Silver’s say they are growing increasingly worried that the stress and unpredictability of the 2016 election have broken the statistician — the latest example coming today when Silver posted a rambling item on his FiveThirtyEight site declaring Donald Trump as the favorite for the World Series over the Chicago Cubs.
“He needs help. It’s getting worse every day,” said a longtime associate. “He used to base everything in facts and data, but now he’s just throwing out random opinions that swing wildly in every direction with a number tacked to them to make them look data-based.