After months and months of work, the 2016 campaign is down to one more day of rallies, phone calls and door knocking, as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will make a last trek through major swing states, carrying with them one final plea for support on Election Day.
Here are some points to think about on this final day:
1. Hillary Clinton gets a reprieve from the FBI. After dumping an October surprise on Clinton 10 days ago by notifying Congress that more work was being done her email investigation, FBI Director James Comey poured cold water on that Sunday, saying a batch of emails held by Clinton aide Huma Abedin did nothing to change the bureau's conclusions about the Clinton email probe - meaning no charges against Clinton. Republicans fumed. "Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. For Clinton, it was a November Surprise - in a good way.
2. The Schedule Tells a Story. This final day sends one last batch of signals about the race for President - Trump will be in five states: Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan. He also had rallies on Sunday in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Clinton will also be in Michigan and Pennsylvania, finishing with a rally in Philadelphia, and then a final gathering in North Carolina. President Obama will also be out in force, going to three states for Clinton. Every state is important on Tuesday, but a Trump win in Michigan would be a big start for him.
3. Khzir Khan returns for Hillary Clinton. At her rally in Manchester, New Hampshire on Sunday night, Hillary Clinton was joined by Khzir Khan, best known for the speech he gave at the last night of the Democratic convention, where he called out Donald Trump. In his slow and methodical voice, Khan did that again on Sunday. "Donald Trump, this isn't your America."
4. Trump closes with two minute ad. Some listeners wrote me on Sunday afternoon that they were watching NFL games around the country and saw a lengthy Trump ad - yep, that's his two minute, closing advertisement. Some Jewish groups objected strenuously to this video, claiming it had anti-Jewish overtones. You can watch and determine for yourself.
5. Trump keeps up attacks on Clinton over email probe. While FBI Director James Comey took the wind out of the sails of those who were hoping for a late indictment of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump tacked only a little off course on Sunday, amending his stump speech slightly, but still slamming Clinton, and predicting that her administration would be hobbled by non-stop investigations. This was Trump at his Sunday evening rally in Michigan:
6. A rather quiet weekend for Wikileaks Wikileaks is almost done with the release of the hacked emails from Clinton aide John Podesta, and unless they are holding back an election meteorite, the news value of those releases has been dwindling in recent days. Oh yes, there are still interesting nuggets in there, like whether Clinton Foundation money went to help pay for Chelsea Clinton's wedding. But Wikileaks has certainly been overshadowed by the FBI wrangling over Clinton's emails. The Clinton campaign on Sunday warned supporters to expect fake documents to emerge; Clinton critics were not pleased.
As I wrote this weekend, one of the biggest things I have noticed is people taking advantage of the Wikileaks releases, and trying to pass off fake screenshots and documents as part of the Podesta releases.
7. The 2016 race is almost over Oh, we could fill up a lot of room breaking down the early voting patterns in a number of states. But let's not do that. We only have one more day to wait for real results. Don't obsess about the absentee numbers or the in-person-early-vote trends. This is almost done.
Tomorrow, I'll take a look at questions of voter fraud, and we'll see where the Congress might be going in the 2016 elections.
Campaign 2016 is almost done.
About the Author
