| Visit industrial America and you see why Make America Great Again resonates | Greetings from a 'yuge' traffic jam outside a Donald Trump rally in Ohio.
Really.
There is no doubt that he attracts a crowd, especially here and in states like it. Inland, industrial America, hit hard by the Global Financial Crisis, the technology revolution and manufacturing being moved offshore, wants change.
Make America Great Again is a slogan that resonates.
Imagine you once had a good job, perhaps in a steel plant, you had a nice house and car, a happy family, a middle class lifestyle; life was simple and good.
Then the bottom fell out of the economy and the housing market. You lost your job, your house, your dreams and your aspirations for your children.
You're a long way from Washington DC but all you see on cable TV is politicians talking and no action. You get angry.
Suddenly a billionaire businessman appears. He says he's going to bring the jobs and factories back home by winding back free trade. He's going to, for example, put a 35% tariff on goods manufactured offshore by American companies who move their factories to cut costs.
Economists warn that his plans to drastically cut taxes and wind back globalisation will create a huge deficit and depress economic growth. He's also a big mouth who offends women, Muslims, Latinos, the disabled and others but you don't care, you at least want someone to try something different.
You want a revolution, of sorts. You want your hopes and dreams back. You're probably white and male. You probably don't trust Hillary Clinton, but even if you did, she's a status quo candidate, and for you, more of the same is not enough.
That's the story of our weeklong road trip through Pennsylvania and Ohio in a nutshell. White men drive much of the viewpoint described above, and it's a very different perspective from what we see and hear along the coast and in the country's larger and rapidly diversifying cities.
It's a story of two Americas, two polarised groups of voters, because that's what you get in elections right? Two sides. It's a challenging gap to bridge.
Hillary Clinton remains ahead in the national polls (which are all over the place and very confusing) but there's some evidence Republicans driven away by the various controversies of the last month are returning to back Mr Trump. Both candidates also look set to benefit from independent voters who are making some fairly last minute calls on who to support.
HE SAID
"Today is a metaphor for what we can accomplish for this country" – Donald Trump told the media on Wednesday at the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.
SHE SAID
"Thank you so much for singing to me," Mrs Clinton told supporters in Florida on Wednesday, her 69th birthday. You can check the singing out here.
ON SECOND THOUGHTS...
Jason Chaffetz was one of many Republicans to jump off the SS Trump after the Access Hollywood tape scandal. "I'm out," the Utah Representative told Fox after the release of the tape, "I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president. It is some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possible imagine".
Just over two weeks later? A change of heart? Well, sort of.
Last night, Chaffetz tweeted this:
Chaffetz's distinction is while he will vote for Mr Trump, he won't endorse him.
It's a similar line that Marco Rubio has taken, but not a particularly noble one either.
HOME RUN BIPARTINSANSHIP
While America is gripped by presidential politics, it has momentarily also returned to its other favourite pastime – baseball.
The World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs has captivated Americans. On the campaign plane the other day, Donald Trump's running mate made his prediction that the Chicago Cubs would vanquish the curse and break a 108-year-old championship drought:
That would make Hillary Clinton very happy, who was snapped by press secretary Nick Merrill as the Cubs clinched their trip to the World Series:
Maybe both sides of politics can finally agree upon something?
No, wait a second, the GOP has already released detailed opposition-research accusing Mrs Clinton of being a "bandwagoner".
Sigh. Can't these two sides get along – even for a second?!
SPEAKING OF FRIENDLY...
Here's a clip from 2008, where Donald Trump heaped praise on the now "Crooked Hillary".
Amongst the compliments he said, "I think she's going to go down at a minimum as a great Senator", described her as a "great wife" and even complimented Bill!
ALTHOUGH...
The New York Times did compile this two page spread of people, places and things Donald Trump has insulted on Twitter since declaring his candidacy.
There's a lot:
GLASS CEILING
On November 8, win or lose, Hillary Clinton will appear at the Javits Center in Manhattan.
The symbolism is shattering.
Ahem.
SPOTTED AT RALLIES THIS WEEK:
Donald Trump has taken to hugging flags.
Babies are wearing headphones.
Kids are carrying signs.
SLIDING DOORS
While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton duke it out in the finally two weeks, Republicans are once again thinking about what might've happened if any of the other 16 candidates who ran during the primary season managed to clinch the nomination.
According to veteran pollster, Frank Luntz, Marco Rubio would've been up +8, John Kasich +12 and Ted Cruz would've been tied.
POLITICS IS BUSINESS
Politics is a tough business and no one has done a better job of merging business AND politics than Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, he took a couple of hours off the campaign trail to officially open his new hotel in Washington D.C. Trump was widely criticized for stepping off the campaign trail but he was back on the stump in North Carolina just a couple of hours later.
According to Bradd Jaffy of NBC, it's the 32nd business event at a Trump property since his campaign began.
The New York Times suggests things aren't going so well for the Trump brand either.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post wondered whether Donald Trump signs in a liberal street make a house harder to sell.
WHERE'S BERNIE
He's making Republicans tremble as he turns his attention to helping Democrats in down ballot races.
In just three days last week, the Vermont Senator brought in over $2.4 million from 500,000 contributions to help 13 Democratic Senate and House candidates. People are still feeling the Bern.
DEAR MEDIA...
There's been a lot of talk in this campaign about the crooked media – and those covering the campaigns in America have received a lot of heat – particularly from Donald Trump.
Despite repeated incidents of abuse towards the media in the press pens at Trump rallies, there was an endearing example of kindness earlier this week at a Trump rally in Tallahassee where a Donald supporter delivered this heart-warning note to reporters:
AFRICA TRUMP
This week's election around the world update comes by way of Uganda, where police arrested two men for demonstrating at the United States embassy in Kampala in support of Donald Trump.
50 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR
Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. What if you find two quarters?
Vice President Joe Biden hope it means lots of good luck for Democrats after he discovered two at the same time in Burlington, Vermont this week:
BY THE NUMBERS
7.3 million – The number of Americans that have already voted, according to CNN.
Data suggests things are going well for Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina – three key states in the race to 270.
Meanwhile, Republicans are seeing strong showings in Iowa and Ohio.
While we're on the topic of early voting, early voting hours in North Carolina have been slashed and we're already seeing lines like this:
2020 COUNTDOWN
Only 1469 days until the election! Wait, what?
Okay, there's less than two weeks until the 2016 wraps up but the folks at The Wall Street Journal are already casting ahead to 2020:
AD OF THE WEEK
Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty is running for re election in Texas. Why should you vote for him?
Well, he doesn't really have any hobbies – and he likes to fix things. If not, do it for his wife, Charlyn, seriously. She's begging you.
MEAN TWEETS
Donald Trump may be the politician that made Twitter the number one way to communicate during a campaign but President Obama got his back this week on Jimmy Kimmel when he read mean tweets from people – and delivered a total zinger on Donald Trump:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
It's been a scary campaign at times, so it's fitting that the election will closely follow Halloween celebrations this weekend.
Folks are busy carving pumpkin Trumps and pumpkin Hillarys and Trump and Hillary costumes are popular as well. Spooky! And we're down to, drum roll, twelve days to go. Hold onto your hats! |  | | | About this email You received this email because you are subscribed to ABC News email alerts. This message was sent to you at starnewsposting@gmail.com. Please add newslists@your.abc.net.au to your email address book to see images by default and stop the email being treated as spam. This email address is not monitored - Please don't reply to this email. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. Add or remove topics | Unsubscribe | Contact Us |
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