At long last, Americans decide between
Clinton and Trump
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[November 08, 2016]
By Steve Holland
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary
Clinton and Republican Donald Trump face the judgment of the voters on
Tuesday as millions of Americans turn out on Election Day to pick the
next U.S. president and end a bruising campaign that polls said favored
Clinton.
In a battle centered largely on the character of the candidates,
Clinton, 69, a former secretary of state and first lady, and Trump, 70,
a New York businessman, made their final, fervent appeals to supporters
late on Monday to turn out to vote.
Their final week of campaigning was a grinding series of
get-out-the-vote rallies across battleground states where the election
is likely to be decided.
"We choose to believe in a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America,"
Clinton said in Philadelphia before a crowd of 33,000 - the biggest of
her campaign.
She was joined by Democratic President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle,
and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Trump made one of his final appearances late on Monday in Manchester,
New Hampshire, where polls showed a tight race.
“Tomorrow, the American working class will strike back,” Trump said.
“It’s about time.”
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He brought much of his family on stage for his last rally in the state
where he scored his first victory in the Republican nomination fight.
FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT
Clinton went into Election Day as the favorite to become the first U.S.
woman president after spending eight years in the White House as the
first lady in the 1990s.
A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent
chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral
College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump's 235.
But Trump advisers said the level of his support was not apparent in the
polling and believed the New York businessman was in position for an
upset victory along the lines of the "Brexit" vote in June to pull
Britain from the European Union.
"We have seen enormous momentum," said deputy Trump campaign manager
Dave Bossie.
Financial markets brightened in reaction to the latest twists in what
has been a volatile presidential campaign. Global stock markets and the
U.S. dollar surged, putting them on track for their biggest gains in
weeks.
Investors, who see Clinton as a known quantity, were buoyed by an
announcement on Sunday by FBI Director James Comey that cleared Clinton
of a cloud of controversy involving her use of a private email server
while President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
While opinion polls showed a close race, but tilting toward Clinton,
major bookmakers and online exchanges were more confident of a Clinton
victory. PredictIt put her chances of capturing the White House at 81
percent.
Both Clinton and Trump planned to vote on Tuesday - she in Chappaqua,
New York, and he in Manhattan. They were then to hold victory rallies
about a mile apart in the evening in New York City.
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![](../images/110816pics/news_b1.jpg)
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses supporters
at the Grand Valley State University Fieldhouse in Allendale,
Michigan November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
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EYES ON FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA
An early indicator of the strength of each candidate could come in
North Carolina and Florida, two must-win states for Trump that have
been the subject of frantic last-minute efforts by both the
Republican and Democratic campaigns.
Races in both those states were shifting from favoring Clinton to
being too close to call.
A strong vote for Clinton could jeopardize Republican control of the
U.S. Senate, as voters choose 34 senators of the 100-member chamber.
Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to win control. The
435-seat House of Representatives was expected, however, to remain
in Republican hands.
Voters had to choose between Clinton, who was vowed to largely
continue the policies of Democrat Obama, and Trump, who has never
held public office and has positioned himself as a change agent.
Both were viewed unfavorably by majorities of voters.
The long-running U.S. election campaign has been one of the most
negative in American history with each candidate accusing the other
of lacking the character and judgment to be president.
Trump, a former reality TV star, reveled in the drama and seized the
spotlight time and again with provocative comments about Muslims and
women, attacks against the Republican establishment and bellicose
appeals to build a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico
to stem illegal immigration.
But the spotlight was not always kind to Trump, with the release of
a 2005 video in which he boasted about groping women damaging his
campaign and leaving him on the defensive for critical weeks.
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Clinton, a former U.S. senator with a penchant for secrecy,
sustained damaging blows of her own linked to her handling of
classified information as the country's top diplomat. FBI Director
James Comey shook up the race and slowed her momentum with an Oct.
28 announcement the agency was reviewing newly discovered emails
that might pertain to her email practices.
On Sunday, Comey told Congress that investigators had found no
reason to change their July finding that there was no criminal
wrongdoing in Clinton's use of the server.
(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker
traveling with the candidates; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill
Tarrant.)
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