- Clinton, Trump in last minute push to win race
After the long, bitter, divisive and
gruelling election campaigns, Americans will head to the polls tuesday
in a historic election that will determine who leads the world’s only
super power and largest economy for the next four years.
The battle between the Democratic
Party’s candidate, Hillary Clinton, and the Republican candidate, Donald
Trump, will be eagerly watched by the rest of the world waiting with
baited breath for the outcome of the election.
No US election in recent history has
generated as much interest around world like the 2016 election. Not even
President Barack Obama’s historic candidacy in 2008 came close.
The campaigns of both candidates were
charaterised by lewd and incendiary language, email scandals, WikiLeaks,
racism, sexual harassment and misogyny, leaked questions ahead of
debates, hyperbole and outright lies, unending Twitter posts even at 3
in the morning, a fractured Republican Party, Russian hacks of the
Democratic Party’s emails, and a last-minute FBI intervention that may
likely affect the outcome of the election.
Should former US Secretary of State,
Mrs. Clinton, beat her rival in the election, she will make history as
the first woman to lead the country.
But before she wins that accolade, the
US electorate would have to decide in a keen contest that has gone to
the wire against Trump, who nobody gave a chance of even winning the
ticket of the Republican Party.
Monday, both candidates fought late into
the night as they barnstormed across battleground states on the final
full day of campaigning.
As Election Day approached, each
candidate has a path to victory. However, according to CNN, Clinton was
better positioned than Trump with a narrow lead in national polls and an
advantage in many battleground states.
But her leads were far from dominant and
a strong turnout for Trump tuesday, or a poor response from sections of
her own coalition could open the way for the billionaire real estate
tycoon to become president.
“I am here to ask you to vote for
yourself, vote for your family, vote for your futures,” Clinton said at
her first event of the day in Pittsburgh. “Vote on the issues that
matter to you because they are on the ballot — not just my name and my
opponent’s name.”
The latest CNN Poll of Polls gives
Clinton a four-point lead over Trump, 46% to 42%. In most of the swing
states that will decide, the race is tight. But if Clinton can cling on
to most states that have voted Democratic in recent elections and add at
most a couple of swing states, she will likely win the election.
But Democrats are worried about Trump’s
strength in the Midwest — particularly in Michigan, which has not voted
Republican since 1988. Trump has been making a strong push there amid
narrowing polls.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway
predicted monday that Trump will win Michigan, telling ABC’s “Good
Morning America” that the campaign feels “really good” about the latest
polling in upper Midwest states.
Clinton was in Michigan later monday.
Robby Mook, her campaign manager, said the late move is more a function
of the calendar and the lack of early voting there than a sign of
genuine anxiety.
“Our strategy these last few days is to
focus on the states where voting overwhelmingly happens on Election
Day,” Mook said on CNN’s New Day. “Previously, as you’ve seen, we’ve
been focused on states like Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, where the
majority of the voting happens early.”
He continued: “So, this is really a
reflection of the voting calendar. Donald Trump has been kind of running
to each and every state it seems. So they have their strategy. But we
have ours.”
Trump has little margin for error. He
will need to win Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, where he is locked in
margin-of-error races with Clinton, just to give him a chance to make
the near perfect run through the remaining swing states that he needs to
capture the presidency.
Democrats were particularly encouraged
by indications of a surge of Hispanic voters in early voting in Florida
and Nevada. But there were also warning signs for Clinton, with
African-Americans not as large a proportion of the early voting
electorate as they were for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
CNN’s most recent electoral map showed
Clinton was projected to win 268 electoral votes from states that are
solidly blue or leaning in her direction. Trump had 204 votes from
states that are solidly in his column or leaning that way. A candidate
needs 270 electoral votes to win the White House.
In the latest CNN Poll of Polls data in
the swing states, Clinton led 45% to 43% in North Carolina, the rivals
are tied at 45% in Florida, and Clinton led by five points in
Pennsylvania, a state Trump hopes to turn red tuesday.
In New Hampshire, where the race moved
towards Trump in the last week, Clinton was still up 44% to 41%. New
Hampshire only has four electoral votes, but Trump’s path to 270 is so
difficult that votes from smaller states could still be crucial for him.
The latest opinion poll, on Fox News monday also gave Clinton a four-point lead, double that of Friday.
The candidates’ schedules monday told
the tale of the last day before voting starts. Clinton was in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and Raleigh, North Carolina.
In Pennsylvania, Clinton appeared
alongside her husband former President Bill Clinton and President Barack
Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, in a bid to ensure the heavy
turnout among Philadelphia voters that could make it impossible for
Trump to make up the deficit elsewhere in the state.
The event underlined the remarkable role
the Obamas have played during the campaign in support of the current
president’s former political rival — one that is unprecedented at least
since Ronald Reagan campaigned for his chosen successor, George H.W.
Bush, in 1988.
Earlier in the day, Obama was in Ann
Arbor, Michigan — another sign of how seriously the Democrats are taking
the state. “The choice that you make when you step into the voting
booth, it really could not be clearer,” Obama said. “Donald Trump is
temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief.”
A race that has been full of surprises
took another lurch Sunday, when FBI Director James Comey said newly
discovered emails being reviewed by the bureau had not changed his
conclusion that the former secretary of state should not be charged over
her use of private email server.
Comey’s last minute move was a boost for
Clinton, but may have come too late to repair the damage to her
campaign wrought by a week of controversy and speculation about the
email probe.
After Clinton’s latest reprieve from
Comey, she adopted a more optimistic message Sunday than she had
previously employed in the final week of the campaign, when she was
under withering attack over the email saga.
After she was introduced to a crowd in
Cleveland by NBA star, Lebron James, she told the crowd that she would
always be there for Americans.
“I don’t know your dreams, I don’t know
your struggles, but I want so much to convey to you I will be on your
side,” Clinton said. “I will fight for you, fight for your family. I
want us to do all we can to help you get ahead and stay ahead and my
vision is very different from my opponents.”
Trump has adopted a scattershot strategy
in the final days, travelling between swing states he needs to win,
like Florida, and turf that had been considered solidly Democratic, like
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota.
He was in Sarasota, Florida, Raleigh,
North Carolina, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Manchester, New Hampshire
yesterday and ended his day with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Trump shrugged off Comey’s move on Sunday, vowing that the American people would “deliver justice at the ballot box”.
“Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows
it, the FBI knows it, the people know it,” he said at a huge rally at
Sterling Heights, Michigan.
If Trump could somehow peel away
Michigan or Pennsylvania from Clinton’s column, he could hedge against a
possible loss to Clinton from among the trio of Florida, North Carolina
and Ohio. If he wins those three states and a big blue state, he could
be on the way to the presidency.
Meanwhile, his campaign team monday sought to allay negative views expressed overseas towards their candidate.
Trump’s campaign manager told the BBC
such antipathy “doesn’t reflect why Donald Trump is running and who he
would be on the global stage”.
She also attacked Clinton’s “unremarkable to chequered” record as secretary of state.
Ms. Conway said negative attitudes overseas “does bother me” but defended Trump’s “America First” stance.
Ms. Conway said negative attitudes overseas “does bother me” but defended Trump’s “America First” stance.
Trump “does say America First and he
means it”, she said, spelling out the reasons – stopping the loss of
American jobs overseas, making sure all partners, including NATO, pay
their fair share and renegotiating trade deals that are bad for the US.
Ms. Conway also responded to a jibe from President Obama that Trump could not be trusted with US nuclear codes.
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