OFF TO THE RACES: The Incredibly Stable ’16 Race, Part 8
The final NBC News|SurveyMonkey weekly tracking poll before the election has Clinton maintaining her edge. “Over the course of months of NBC News|SurveyMonkey polling, the numbers have remained remarkably stable. Clinton has not only maintained a lead over the Republican nominee since the end of July, but the margin of her lead has been between 4 to 6 percentage points since the second week of September.”
From NBC’s Katy Tur and Benjy Sarlin: “Donald Trump's cabinet-in-waiting is taking shape in the final days of the race, as aides eye a number of Trump loyalists for major posts should he win on Tuesday. Among the names being considered, according to conversations with three campaign advisers who requested anonymity to speak freely: Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Newt Gingrich for secretary of state, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn for defense secretary or national security adviser, Trump finance chairman Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary, and Republican National Committee finance chair Lew Eisenberg for commerce secretary… Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, a loyal supporter, has taken a major role managing the transition effort, especially as the official transition chief, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has drifted from the campaign. It's not clear Christie is being considered for a significant role in a potential administration either... There are also some possible roadblocks: Flynn would not be eligible for secretary of defense, which requires appointees be out of the military for seven years, without a waiver from Congress. But transition talks are taking on greater intensity in recent days as Trump's polling position improved. Some loyalists are playing coy about their desire for a particular job, while others are whispering their names hoping to gain traction."
From NBCNews.com: “FBI Director James Comey said Sunday that the bureau won't change the conclusion it made in July after it examined newly revealed emails related to the Hillary Clinton probe. "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton," Comey wrote in a letter to 16 members of Congress.”
The New York Times on the email news: “Mr. Comey’s announcement, just two days before the election, was an effort to clear the cloud of suspicion he had publicly placed over her presidential campaign late last month when he alerted Congress that the F.B.I. would examine the emails… While the new letter was clear as it related to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Comey’s message was otherwise vague. He did not say that agents had completed their review of the emails, or that they were abandoning the matter in regard to her aides. But federal law enforcement officials said that they considered the review of emails related to Mrs. Clinton’s server complete, and that Mr. Comey’s letter was intended to convey that.”
“The recommendation marked the culmination of a nightmarish 10 days for the bureau. But coming two days before the election, it also generated renewed skepticism from both political parties about the FBI’s handling of the high-profile case,” writes the Washington Post, which looks at the impact of the investigation on the FBI’s reputation.
NBC’s Ali Vitali reports that Donald Trump dismissed the FBI announcement: “While the decision effectively closes the matter for the Clinton campaign, Trump believes it's not over. "The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time. The rank-and-file special agents at the FBI won't let her get away with her terrible crimes," Trump said.”
As one of us(!) noted yesterday, poll data shows just how much the election has been about fear.
And as another one of us(!) wrote: 62% of voters say they feel less proud of America as a result of the election.
The New York Times crunches the numbers on Trump’s big bet with non-college educated whites.
USA Today published op-eds from both candidates outlining why voters should pick them. Clinton’s argument: “We can keep America safe through strength and smarts — or turn our backs on our allies, and cozy up to our adversaries. We can come together to build a stronger, fairer America, or fear the future and fear each other.” And Trump’s argument: “America has too many problems, too many things to fix, to mire our government in years of sordid corruption and criminal investigation. It is time to cut our ties with the failed politicians of the past, and embrace a bright, new future for all of our people.”
The AP rounds up yesterday on the campaign trail: “With the cloud of an FBI investigation lifted, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump struck strikingly different tones as they moved into the final hours of a volatile, nearly two-year-long presidential campaign. After days of full-throated attacks on Trump's qualifications and temperament, Clinton cast herself as the candidate of "healing and reconciliation" — perhaps a surprising position for a woman who's long been one of the most divisive figures in American politics… Trump, meanwhile, voiced new confidence as he brought his campaign — and his dark visions of a rigged American economic and political system— to longtime Democratic strongholds.”
Khizr Khan campaigned with Clinton yesterday in New Hampshire, telling Donald Trump “this isn’t your America.”
The Washington Post has a great look at how Donald Trump’s message plays in different parts of a key state: Pennsylvania.
The Wall Street Journal lays out Trump’s narrow path to victory.
Jon Ralston has a good look at the Harry Reid turnout machine and the impact it appears to have had on the race in Nevada.
POLITICO: “Slate and Vice News have partnered with Votecastr, a company helmed by Obama and Bush campaign veterans, to provide real-time projections of how the candidates are faring in each state throughout the day. They expect to begin posting projections at 8 a.m. Eastern time on Election Day — a dramatic departure from current practice, where representatives from a consortium of news organizations (The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News) huddle in a quarantine room without cell phones, pouring over the earliest exit poll data but declining to release anything that points to an election result until all the polls have closed.”
Janet Reno, the first female attorney general, has died.