Optimism versus grim mood
Democrats celebrate hope while GOP blasts corruption
Democrats celebrate hope while GOP blasts corruption.
CLEVELAND: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump brandished starkly different visions of America as they headed into a fierce final weekend of campaigning, one celebrating hope as the other bashed corruption.
Trump doubled down on his attacks on Clinton as a product of a venal and incompetent establishment, while Clinton headlined an optimistic concert spectacular featuring superstar singer Beyonce.
Forecasts based on polling averages still give the 69-year-old Democrat an edge over the 70-yearold Republican property mogul ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
But Trump has been buoyed by signs that he is closing the gap in the key swing states that will decide who secures an electoral college win.
So both headed on Friday to the US rustbelt, where blue-collar voters that were once reliable Democrats may be tempted by Trump’s protectionist promise to repatriate jobs from Mexico and China.
Clinton’s campaign brought her to Cleveland, Ohio, a state that fellow Democrat President Barack Obama won in 2012 but where she now trails Trump in opinion polls by around five percentage points.
She was introduced with a show-stopping set by rapper Jay-Z and his even more famous wife Beyonce, who sang songs of emancipation and empowerment wearing a version of Clinton’s trademark pantsuit.
“The world looks to us as a progressive country that leads change,” Beyonce declared. “I want my daughter to grow up to see a woman lead our country. That is why I’m with her.”
Riffing on the theme, Clinton portrayed her campaign to become America’s first female president as the next step in the civil rights struggle.
“We have unfinished work to do, more barriers to break, and with your help, a glass ceiling to crack once and for all,” she declared.
“When I hear my opponent talking about America I don’t recognise it,” she declared, touting her own “confident, optimistic, inclusive” agenda.
Trump has run one of the most aggressive and populist campaigns in history, browbeating his Republican primary rivals into submission before launching into Clinton, “such a nasty woman”. Trump was in Hershey, Pennsylvania hoping to use his popularity with the white, male working class to shatter the “firewall” pollsters once thought Clinton enjoyed in Democrat-leaning states.
“I want the entire corrupt Washington establishment to hear the words we’re about to say. When we win on Nov 8 we’re going to ‘drain the swamp’,” he said, as the 13,000-strong crowd took up the chant.