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.
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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