US Election 2016- On election eve, Trump’s last-ditch bid for glory

Striding onto the stage in the waning hours of an exhilarating and extraordinary 511-day election campaign, Republican Donald Trump sounded as if he wasn’t quite ready for his American roadshow to end.

And if he wins the White House on Tuesday, it won’t.

Exhausted as he must be, having hop-scotched to campaign stops in a dozen cities in two days, Trump on Monday reveled in the adulation of a fiercely supportive crowd in Raleigh as he battled to claim the state of North Carolina — crucial if he is to pull off a shock upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“In one day, can you believe this? One day!” he said, grinning and shaking his head as a chant of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” rose up from a crowd of more than 5,000.

“We are going to win the great state of North Carolina, and we are going to win back the White House!”

With the wildest US presidential race in memory nearly in the rear-view mirror, Trump has stalked traditional battlegrounds and Democrat-leaning states, desperate to persuade Americans they would be better served by a political outsider than establishment favorite Clinton.

“Our failed political establishment has delivered nothing but poverty, nothing but problems, nothing but losses,” he said, boiling the essence of his long and controversial campaign into a handful of soundbites.

“They get rich by making America poor.”

Several of the final polls of the campaign show Clinton with a broad but shallow lead nationally and in the battleground states that will decide the race.

– Blue state blitz –

Trump has been on a non-stop cross-country crusade in recent days, diving into Democratic strongholds like Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia in a bid to flip blue states, while holding all the ground his predecessor Mitt Romney won in 2012.

Amid reports that advisors and staffers are clashing behind the scenes in the race’s final days, the 70-year-old Manhattan real estate tycoon’s campaign stamina has been extraordinary.

On Saturday, he logged nearly 4,500 miles (7,240 kilometers) on his gilded Boeing 757, followed by 3,000 more on Sunday.

Five more stops were scheduled for Monday, including a midnight rally in Michigan.

– Florida dreams –

He began his day of reckoning Monday in the make-or-break state of Florida — vital to his White House hopes.

“My poll numbers are going through the roof,” he said in Sarasota, his hyperbole increasing as the clock ticked down to Tuesday.

“You watch what’s going to happen.”

White male voters are lining up behind Trump in the Sunshine State, polls show, but he is suffering with Hispanics and women.

Trump insisted he will do far better with female voters than polls suggest.

With the eccentricities of the campaign on full display in the final hours, the candidate called on one person who was wearing a rubber Trump mask in the crowd to hand it over.

“Nice head of hair, I’ll say that,” Trump reflected as he held the mask.

– ‘She has lied, cheated’ –

A different mask — Hillary with horns, carried around by a Trump supporter — was on display at Trump’s Raleigh rally.

Obama won North Carolina in 2008 but lost it four years later. Trump holds the narrowest of leads here.

Clinton was aiming to claw back the ground by holding a high-profile midnight rally in the same city late Monday, with pop star Lady Gaga in tow.

North Carolina’s Republican governor, Pat McCrory, acknowledged to AFP that the race in his state now was “all based upon turnout.”

But he swatted away suggestions that a star-studded affair would get people to the polls.

“I love the Beatles… but I don’t vote based upon what Paul McCartney’s political beliefs are, and I don’t think that’s how most people vote,” he said.

Kathy Smith, who owns a construction company, said she was excited but nervous.

“So many seem to have given up on Trump but I have not, I just believe that people are going to come out tomorrow and vote for him,” she said at the rally.

“Hillary is just an awful person. She has lied, cheated.”

– Michigan gamble –

Trump jetted from Raleigh to the Pennsylvania Rust Belt city of Scranton, where Clinton has family roots but where the Republican is counting on the blue-collar working class.

Clinton is parrying Trump’s charge into Pennsylvania with a mega-event of her own, featuring the Obamas, ex-president Bill Clinton and rock idol Bruce Springsteen.

Trump flew next to Manchester, New Hampshire, for an arena rally where supporters had gathered eight hours early, bringing snacks and fold-out chairs.

First time voter Jack Keefe, 18, took off school in neighboring Massachusetts to drive 90 minutes to see Trump, whom he views as a role model.

“The energy is just going to be amazing,” Keefe said.

“I think that if he loses, I’ve just got to pray that Hillary Clinton isn’t as bad as I think she is.”

Trump wraps up his whirlwind day in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a state where Clinton is ahead in polling. Trump’s campaign nevertheless insists the race there is tied, and that voter enthusiasm could put Trump over the top.