Clinton, Trump Deploy Big Guns As Race Focuses On Must-win States

(@rukhshanmir)

Clinton, Trump deploy big guns as race focuses on must-win states

RALEIGH, United States, Nov 4 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 04th Nov, 2016 ) : Hillary Clinton unleashed top surrogates including campaigner-in-chief President Barack Obama to bolser her case Thursday in the election's homestretch, as rival Donald Trump deployed wife Melania to soften his image in crucial battleground states.

As a slew of polls showed the race tightening with just five days to go, the campaigns brought all hands on deck in a handful of states that will decide the rollercoaster election. Obama shuttled into Florida for fiery rallies aimed at turning out the Democratic base for Clinton in a must-win state for her rival Trump, who is under pressure to snatch battleground states and even poach one or two Democratic strongholds if he is to prevail.

A CBS/New York Times nationwide survey showed Clinton's lead shrinking to three points, at 45 percent against Trump's 42 percent, a sign the bombastic mogul is winning over once-wary Republican voters.

After months of vitriolic and turbulent campaigning, political tribalism appears to be returning to the fore in the deeply divided nation ahead of Election Day on November 8. "This will be a close race and you cannot take it for granted," Obama warned supporters in Jacksonville, Florida, painting an apocalyptic vision of what Trump would mean for American democracy.

Clinton added to the portrayal, telling North Carolinians that "if Donald Trump were to win this election we would have a commander in chief who is completely out of his depth and whose ideas are incredibly dangerous." "Are we going to work together to build a stronger, fairer, better America?" Clinton asked.

"Or are we going to fear the future and fear each other and hunker down and be paralyzed by all of our prejudices?" North Carolina, with its changing demographics, is critical for both camps, and Clinton and Trump were holding dueling rallies in the state Thursday.

Their motorcades even passed one another on the tarmac at Raleigh-Durham's airport. But the Democrats' last stand will come in Philadelphia on the eve of the election for a joint rally binding America's two most powerful political dynasties.

Clinton will be joined by her husband Bill Clinton, President Obama and 2016's most potent campaigner, First Lady Michelle Obama. For sure the state of Pennsylvania is a firewall for Clinton; a Trump win there would be a giant step toward him becoming the 45th president.

But a rally in Philadelphia -- the City of Brotherly love -- sends an unmistakable message: Trump is a threat to the republic. It was here that the United States Constitution came into being in 1787.