The polls are tightening, the appeals to unenthusiastic voters are becoming more desperate – and speculation is mounting about one previously solid group of Republican voters.
Just when you thought this election could not get any stranger comes the news that George W Bush could be voting for a Democrat. And not just any Democrat.
The revelation came from Texas land commissioner and Trump supporter George P Bush who suggested at a small Republican gathering that his grandfather George HW and uncle George W could both be casting ballots for Hillary Clinton.
Rumours that Bush Senior was a secret supporter of the wife of the man who beat him in 1992 have been circulating for a few weeks, after he reportedly spilled the beans to a member of the Kennedy clan. The 92-year-old was apparently not impressed by Trump’s mockery of his son Jeb in the primaries.
But this is the first time we’ve heard that George W Bush might back Clinton too – like father, like son, it now appears. When Jeb Bush was asked about his brother’s intentions, he simply said: “Secret ballot.”
Donald Trump must be itching to make some capital out of what looks like the ultimate dynastic, establishment love-in.
But attacking the Bush family might not be the best strategy as he attempts to convince older Republicans to come home to the party on 8 November and Trump – as he made clear at a rally in Florida on Wednesday night – is trying to be on his very best behaviour as polling day approaches.
Trump firmly believes he can win, writes the BBC’s Anthony Zurcher, after a week of bad news for the Clinton campaign. But what if he loses? Mark Mardelllooks at the possibilities. And our business team has been examining the criticism levelled at both candidates over their intention to hand their business/charity interests over to their children.
Back on the campaign trail, Clinton is attempting to enthuse her own party’s base, amid signs that early black voters in battleground states are not turning out in the kind of numbers they did for Obama in 2012, although her support among Hispanic voters appears to be holding up.
The Clinton campaign will also be hoping they will not have lost any votes from another, smaller, demographic – voters who mistakenly thought they could cast a ballot by text message. A fiendish, and very professional-looking anti-Clinton hoax has been doing the rounds on Twitter, urging Democrats to vote for their party’s candidate by texting Hillary to 59925.
Twitter has decided this is against its terms and conditions and is attempting to shut it down. Anyone who does text Hillary to that number gets a message saying the ad you saw “was not approved by Hillary for America” and gives another text number to get on the HFA mailing list.
Donald Trump is, meanwhile, appealing to those who have already voted for Clinton to change their mind. This is possible in at least seven states, apparently. But few ever bother to do it.
One group Trump is having no trouble winning over is white supremacists. His campaign hastily issued a statement distancing itself from a Ku Klux Klan newspaper, The Crusader, which endorsed his candidacy.
“This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign,” said Team Trump.
Some of Trump’s most controversial policies have been on immigration. So what’s at stake in this election for the country’s tens of millions of immigrants? We dissect where he and Clinton stand.
BBC
