The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Clinton ‘in good shape’ three weeks before polls
Democrat nominee heading for a landslide victory
With roughly three weeks to US election day, Republican strategists have conceded that Hillary Clinton has a firm grip on the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House – and that she may be on her way to a crushing victory over Donald Trump.
Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who is advising Florida senator Marco Rubio’s re-election campaign, said of Mr Trump: “He is on track to totally and completely melting down.”
Things can still change before polling day, with one more presidential debate to go. Mr Trump has also rallied before, while his core support remains strongly committed.
However, along with indicators such as polling, campaign travel, staffing and advertising, the interviews with Republican political professionals unaffiliated with the Trump campaign suggest only an epic collapse from Democratic nominee Mrs Clinton would keep her from winning enough states to become president.
Mr Trump’s campaign has been hit by allegations the New York billionaire sexually accosted several women over the past three decades.
Early voting in pivotal North Carolina and Florida shows positive signs for Mrs Clinton, and donations to the Republican National Committee are down about a quarter over the past three months on the same period in 2012, when Mitt Romney was the nominee.
Preference polling in the past week, meanwhile, has generally moved in Mrs Clinton’s direction, with the Democrat improving in national surveys and in a number of contested states.
If the election were held today, Mrs Clinton would likely carry the entire west coast and north-east, as well as most of the Great Lakes region – a place Mr Trump once identified as ripe territory for his populist message against free trade.
Only Ohio is on a knife-edge in that part of the country, but that perennial battleground may not play a decisive role come election day this year due to Mrs Clinton’s strength – and Mr Trump’s weaknesses – elsewhere.
Mr Trump and running mate Mike Pence have made a hard play for Pennsylvania, a state carried by the Democratic nominee in the past six elections. But their strategy to hold down Mrs Clinton in Philadelphia and its suburbs while running up Mr Trump’s vote total in more conservative parts of the state has failed to materialise.
“He’s getting his brains beat in by women in the Philly suburbs,” said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster who is surveying battlegrounds and several states with races for US senate.