Clinton, Trump take fight to battleground states

Clinton, Trump take fight to battleground states

AFP/File / dsk Hillary Clinton (L) and Donald Trump (R) are the respective Democratic and Republican presidential candidates for the US election in November

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Friday hit the campaign trail hard, taking their fight for the White House to rival battleground states and galvanizing support for starkly different visions of America.
One of the most divisive US campaigns in modern history is now entering a new chapter. Republicans and Democrats have both formally selected their nominees, and the candidates are slogging it out before Election Day on November 8.
Clinton followed her historic acceptance speech on Thursday as the first woman presidential nominee for a major party by staging a rally in Philadelphia before embarking on a bus tour of Rust Belt states Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Her Republican opponent meanwhile jetted to Colorado, another key state where angry white voters could welcome the New York billionaire's promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration.
Just over 100 days before Americans go to the polls, voters are being asked to choose between two sharply polarized visions -- and between two monumentally unpopular candidates.
"I can't think of an election that is more important, certainly in my lifetime," Clinton told supporters at the rally in Philadelphia on Friday.

AFP / Adrian LEUNG America's choice

The 68-year-old Democrat portrays Trump as a threat to democracy, seeking to woo moderate Republicans repelled by the former reality TV star and shore up a coalition with progressives on the left of her party.
"Donald Trump painted a picture, a negative, dark, divisive picture of a country in decline," she said.
"I'm not telling you that everything is peachy keen -- I'm telling you we've made progress, but we have work to do."

- Plans vs. promises -

AFP/File / Mandel Ngan Both the Republican and the Democratic parties are deeply divided in the run up to the presidential election and are led by profoundly unpopular figures with approval ratings below 40 percent

She promises to focus on parts of the country that have been "left out and left behind" -- constituencies where declining living standards, fears about safety, drug use and lost jobs have fueled support for Trump.
Trump, who has never previously held office, portrays himself as the candidate of radical change -- the outsider who will run the country like a business, restore jobs, cut the deficit and put America first.
Clinton, who has spent more than three decades in public life, has promised to make new jobs a priority, saying she alone has the skills, experience and temperament needed to make incremental progress.

AFP / Alain BOMMENEL, Philippe MOUCHE Clinton holds lead

She is pitching for disgruntled working class voters, who have formed the backbone of Trump's base, and is trashing the real estate mogul for making so many of his products overseas and for alienating women, Hispanics and Muslims.
On her bus tour, she is being accompanied by her husband, former president Bill Clinton, her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and his wife Anne.
The so-called Rust Belt states are vital parts of almost any strategy to garner the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency.

"We're going to be drawing that contrast between Hillary Clinton's plans for our country and Donald Trump's empty promises," said Kaine.
- Negative partisanship -

Trump, who will address two rallies in Colorado later Friday, responded to the Democratic challenge by launching a tirade of insults on Twitter against Clinton and her surrogates.
"I am watching Crooked Hillary speak. Same old stuff, our country needs change!" he wrote.
His campaign dismissed her convention speech as "an insulting collection of cliches and recycled rhetoric," that was "delivered from a fantasy universe, not the reality we live in today."
At the Republican convention last week, the 70-year-old Trump doubled down on controversial plans to clamp down on crime and on immigration from countries -- including France -- that he deems "compromised" by terror attacks.
"The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end," he told delegates. "Safety will be restored."
Supporters of Clinton and Trump are sharply polarized, with Republicans at Trump rallies routinely chanting "Lock her up!" and Democrats adopting for themselves chants of "U-S-A!"
Experts predict that "negative partisanship" -- voting against a candidate -- will play a major role in deciding who makes it to the White House.
Clinton's unpopularity is second only to Trump's, with a disapproval rating of 55 percent compared to his 57 percent, according to recent averages.
When it comes to voter intentions, Trump and Clinton are in a statistical dead heat, according to the most recent poll average from RealClearPolitics.

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