Clinton, Trump scramble to finish as Big Day nears
With hours until Election Day, the wildest US presidential race in memory has grown more competitive in most of the battleground states, although Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton continues to hold a broader path to victory than Republican Donald Trump.
The political map suggests that Clinton can lose several key states long assumed to be in her column and still reach the 270 electoral votes she needs to win.
Trump, meanwhile, has a new reason for optimism, as a growing number of states appear potentially within his grasp. But to win, he would have to take nearly all of them.
The 11th-hour fluidity of the race had the two campaigns scrambling the travel plans of the candidates and their top surrogates.
Trump's case, it is an effort to grab what he considers emerging opportunities in the sprint for the finish line; in Clinton's, as insurance against surprises Tuesday in territory she has considered hers.
Trump said Saturday that he and his running mate, Indiana Gov Mike Pence, will hold campaign events in Minnesota, a state that has not voted for a Republican since 1972. A Trump campaign official insisted that the move was not a feint and that internal polling showed the Republican only three points behind Clinton there.
In a sign that Democrats are suddenly anxious about Michigan, Clinton today will be in Grand Rapids and President Obama will campaign in Ann Arbor. Trump and Pence will also be in Michigan in the next two days, reported Washington Post yesterday.
At a rally Saturday in Tampa, which is a bellwether of crucial Florida, Trump said his campaign is moving aggressively to seize upon openings it sees across the country.
"We're going into what they used to call Democrat strongholds where we are now tied or leading," the billionaire real estate developer said.
He predicted that he will win Florida and Pennsylvania -- which both voted for Obama in the past two elections -- and said that he is "doing phenomenally well in North Carolina," where both candidates have invested significant time and resources over the past few weeks.
Clinton is banking on star power to lock in her narrow poll lead, hosting back-to-back weekend pop concerts with Beyonce and Katy Perry and booking a date with President Barack Obama, AFP wrote yesterday.
For his part Trump has embarked on a cross-country odyssey through Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire.
The latest major survey, an ABC/Washington Post tracker released early yesterday, gave Clinton a five percentage point 48-43 lead. Polling averages however are closer.
The final 48-hour programmes of both campaigns suggest that the race is closer than either side admits.
In the latest sign of the mounting tension and ugly mood, Trump was briefly hustled off stage in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday in a false gun scare.
Trump was unruffled, although his son retweeted a message implying it was an "assassination attempt." The Secret Service said that agents found no weapon.
The unrest broke out when a protester trying to hold up a "Republicans against Trump" sign was wrestled to the ground and attacked by Trump supporters. The man, who said he was a Republican, was briefly detained then released.
Clinton's camp mocked the 70-year-old tycoon's scattershot approach to the electoral map as a sign of panic.
But the 69-year-old former secretary of state herself added an extra planned stopover in Michigan, a state that fellow Democrat Obama won easily in 2012.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. At his campaign stops the billionaire Republican remained triumphalist.
"In three days we are going to win the great state of Colorado and we are going to win back the White House," Trump promised late Saturday in Denver, Colorado.
"You're going to be so happy. We're going to start winning again," he intoned, urging voters to cast ballots in person to avoid the risk of fraud in postal voting.
Trump hit his key themes: promises to tear up free trade agreements, expel undocumented migrants, rebuild an allegedly depleted US military and purge Washington of corruption.
And his fans roared back the same three-word chants: "Build the wall!" "Drain the swamp!" "Lock her up!"
'JUST HAS NO PATH'
Clinton's late decision to head to Michigan with Obama on today and to add a midnight rally in North Carolina as election day begins raised eyebrows.
Campaign manager Robby Mook dismissed suggestions that Clinton is trying to shore up her crumbling northern firewall.
"Donald Trump has to win all of these battleground races," he said. "If we win Pennsylvania and Florida, he just has no path."
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