This has been a long and grueling campaign season, through contentious primaries and a crystallizing general election period. The American people are now faced with a choice. It is a choice between the side of darkness, doom and gloom, bottomless pessimism and on the other side an optimistic view that our diversity makes us strong, that we are strong when we all pull together, that great days are ahead.
It is fitting that on the last day of campaigning the candidates offered starkly different versions of their visions for America.
NY Times:
Optimism From Hillary Clinton and Darkness From Donald Trump at Campaign’s End
In Philadelphia, Mrs. Clinton drew the biggest crowd of her 19-month campaign to the vast plaza in front of Independence Hall, where Bruce Springsteen, the balladeer of working-class America, rhapsodized about her values and the candidate portrayed herself as a protector of freedom and equality.
“Tomorrow we face the test of our time. What will we vote for — not just against?” Mrs. Clinton asked. “Every issue you care about is at stake.”
She concluded with an appeal to those who have waited decades for a female president.
“Let’s make history together,” she said.
…
As she embarked on a four-state tour, Mrs. Clinton gave a sunny and optimistic summation of her candidacy for the White House.
“Tomorrow, you can vote for a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America,” she told a crowd in Pittsburgh.
Hillary offered a positive, forward looking vision, one that is full of hope, optimism.
Trump offered the opposite:
The contrasts between the candidates and their messages were on vivid display in the campaign’s last full day.
Mr. Trump, who campaigned in five states on Monday, took a harsher approach, assailing the “crooked media,” attacking a “corrupt Washington establishment” and mocking Mrs. Clinton over and over.
“It’s a rigged, rigged system,” he declared in Raleigh, N.C. “And now it’s up to the American people to deliver the justice that we deserve at the ballot box tomorrow.”
Revenge minded and conspiracy peddling, that’s how we know The Donald. Couldn’t help himself even on the final day of campaigning. Disgusting. I can’t wait to not have to see this creep’s visage every day on the tube, the interwebs, front pages of newspapers.
But, I digress.
Here is Hillary's inclusive, optimistic, visionary speech:
Hillary: “No reason our best days aren’t ahead.”
Family and supporters for both candidates made their final declarations, and there, too, was a stark difference. On Hillary’s side there were Michelle Obama and Barack Obama with emotional and highly optimistic pleas to voters last night:
Michelle Obama Tells Crowd in Philadelphia, 'This Election Is On Us'
Michelle Obama brought down the house as she called for Americans to head to the polls and cast their votes for the nation’s first female president.
As Raw Story reports, Obama was introduced by Bill Clinton, who referred to her as “the finest surrogate...any candidate for president has ever known.”
In her remarks, which were just a bit shy of 10 minutes, the First Lady sang Hillary Clinton’s praises, emphasizing her readiness for the role of Commander-in-Chief and declaring that she is a leader “we can trust.”
“Speaking here tonight is perhaps the last and most important thing that I can do for my country as First Lady,” Obama told the crowd.
Over the course of the election cycle, Michelle Obama has alluded to Donald Trump by implicit comparison, but she has always refrained from speaking his name. Tonight was no different. She called for America to vote for “a leader who takes this job seriously,” and asserted that the nation’s daughters would be safe under a Clinton presidency. She moreover noted the importance “that our sons understand that truly strong men are compassionate and kind.”
Inspirational and inclusive.
“This election is on us,” she reminded. “If we get out and vote tomorrow, Hillary Clinton will win. If we stay home or play around with a protest vote, Hillary’s opponent will win. Period.”
Barack Obama passed the baton to Hillary with this inspirational speech:
Barack Obama’s last, emotional speech before US election polls close
After a full, final day of campaigning, Barack Obama appeared last night at a 40,000-strong rally at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall to make his last speech in support of Hillary Clinton. It was personal, emotional and vulnerable.
(Transcript):
Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?
Thank you Michelle Obama, for being my partner I love, my rock, and an amazing first lady.
Eight years ago I asked all of you to join me on an unlikely journey. We set out not just to change programs or policies, but to rebuild an economy so everyone had a chance to succeed.
To reform Washington so that your voices would be more powerful than entrenched lobbyists.
We set out to keep America safe and strong, not just with the might of our arms, and the extraordinary troops, but with the power of our ideas. To shape a changing idea so that everybody belongs and everyone has a part, a responsibility.
And we didn’t know when we began that America would fall into the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. But in the face of great challenges, in the face of entrenched interests, in the face of in some cases unprecedented obstruction in a cynical Washington, we stayed with it. The American people stayed with it.
And because of your resilience, your strength, because of your faith, we turned “Yes we can” into “Yes we did”. Look at the road we’ve travelled. We’ve seen America turn recession into recovery. Our businesses created 15.5million new jobs, putting more people back to work than all the other advanced nations combined.
Incomes are rising. Poverty is falling 20 million more Americans have health insurance. We’ve doubled production of renewable energy, become the world leader in fighting climate change. Marriage equality is finally a reality from coast to coast.
We brought home more of our men and women in uniform, took out Osama Bin Laden, and almost every country on earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago.
In fact because Bill Clinton is here, I did some math. A little arithmetic. Under the last two Republican presidents, job growth was basically flat. Deficits went up. Over our two Democratic presidencies, jobs went up by more than 30 million, deficits went down, millions more Americans gained health insurance – so yes, with Democrats in charge, America is strong. Those are just the facts.
And with just one more day to go, we now have the chance to elect a 45th president who will build on our progress. Who will finish the job. Who already has the respect of leaders around the world. Who is smart and who is steady. Someone who comes to this office as well prepared as anyone who has ever run – more than me, more than Bill: the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton.
Now, I know it’s been a long campaign. There’s been a lot of noise, and a lot of distraction. At times, it’s felt more like a reality show, or even a parody. But tomorrow, Philadelphia, the choice you face when you step into that voting booth could not be clearer and could not be more serious.
On the economy, Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be our chief executive. hat’s why most CEOs and economists don’t support him. He would trigger a reckless trade war. Strip 20 million Americans of their health insurance. Roll back the new rules designed to check Wall Street recklessness and protect consumers. And would roll back the regulations we put in place to protect this planet for our kids.
On foreign policy, Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be Commander-in-Chief. Don’t take my word for it – listen to the Republicans who refused to support him. He lacks a basic understanding of the world. Justifies Torture. Suggests abandoning our allies. Over the weekend, his campaign took over his Twitter account, because he’s erratic. If his closest advisers don’t trust him to tweet, why would we trust him with the nuclear codes?
More than his policies though, throughout this campaign Trump has shown utter contempt for the qualities that make this country great. Anyone who sees women as objects, minorities and immigrants as inferior, other faiths as presumptively un-American, cannot leave this diverse, dynamic, big-hearted country that we love. All of this should give you reason enough to vote tomorrow. But you don’t have to just vote against someone. You have someone extraordinary to vote for. Philadelphia, you have someone outstanding to vote for in Hillary Clinton.
I’ll be honest, I’ve had to bite my tongue after I’ve heard some of the nonsense I have heard people say about Hillary Clinton in this election. I can only imagine what Bill and Chelsea have gone through. The vicious, crazy attacks. The double standards applied to her. They’re like nothing we’ve ever seen before. And what makes it worse is that most of the people saying this stuff don’t really believe it. They know better.
Don’t forget, when Hillary was a senator, when she was my secretary of state, she was really popular. People saw how effective she was, how she crossed party lines to get things done. Before she announced her candidacy for president, Republican leaders described her, and I’m quoting now, as “very impressive”. Someone who does a magnificent job. One of the most effective secretaries of state. They were right then. I agreed with Republicans job. Hillary did a great job for America. She’s a big reason why we’re more respected around the world. But then, when it was politically expedient, those same Republicans began tearing her down.
And look, when you’re subjected to unrelenting negative fire it takes a toll. But here’s the thing about Hillary. She doesn’t complain. She doesn’t buckle. She brushes it off. Like the American people, she is strong and tough. She knows that government service is not about her, it’s about you. Your struggles. Your dreams. Throughout her career, Hillary has followed that Methodist creed her mom taught her: do all the good you can for all the people you can in all the ways you can, and she doesn’t plan on stopping now. I know she will work her heart of for you.
For everybody still in need of a good job or a good raise. For every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty. For every student who needs relief from student debt, every immigrant who wants to contribute to this country they love. For every American who has not felt the progress of these past few years, she will work. She will deliver. She won’t just tweet.
But she’ll need your help, and she’ll need your help in Washington. If you want her to succeed, you’ll need to give her allies in the senate like Katie McGinty. You cannot just stick Hillary in Congress with Republicans who are already promising even more unprecedented dysfunction in Washington. That would be hard to do but they’re promising it. More shutdowns, more obstruction. Years of hearings and investigations.
You know, gridlock is not mysterious, it’s not something that happens because both sides are being equally unreasonable. It has been a stated Republican strategy since I took office. The only way to break it is to make those who engage in it pay a price.
Look at Katie McGinty’s opponent. Don’t boo – vote. I’ve given him credit for working with us on background checks [for gun buyers], which 90 per cent of Americans support. That position rings hollow when he supports a Republican leader who blocked that bill. And it doesn’t come close to making up for his repeated votes to give tax cuts to the wealthy, just like Donald Trump would. To block a higher minimum wage, just like Trump would. To repeal the Affordable Care Act just like Trump would.
We need someone who has never forgotten her working class roots, the daughter of a restaurant hostess and a Philadelphia beat cop, someone who went to college with scholarships and student loans. Katie McGinty won’t be with you part of the way, she’ll be with you all of the way- that’s why you need to vote for her.
Pennsylvania: if you think endless gridlock will help your family, vote Republican. But if you believe America can do better than that – if you care about creating jobs that families can live on and childcare they can afford, if you believe in equal pay for women, and a minimum wage for workers, you need to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket.
People who will roll up their sleeves and move America forward.
Listen. I know we live in a cynical time. I know elections and all the negative ads tend to heighten this cynicism. Just this week a journalist asked me if I still believe the optimism I expressed that night in Boston twelve years ago. That we were more than a collection of red and blue states. That there wasn’t a liberal America or a conservative America, black America or white America, that it was just the United States of America.
He asked me if I still held onto the hope of 2008. If I still believed in change. He said: “The country’s so divided. Hillary’s in such a close race with someone who is in total opposition with all you’ve ever stood for. “Maybe your vision was misguided”, he suggested. “Or at least very naive.”
It was a fair question. I had to acknowledge that I hadn’t counted on the obstruction I’d receive when in office. I didn’t anticipate the way social media would magnify our divisions and muddy up facts. None of us knew then how deep the Great Recession would cut, and how many people would suffer.
But despite all that, I told him – the answer is yes. I still believe in hope. I’m still as optimistic as ever about our future, and that’s because of you. The American people. My visits to schools and factories, theatres, national parks. The letters you’ve written me. The tears you’ve shed over a lost loved one. I have seen again and again your goodness, your strength, and your heart.
In 2008 you gave me a chance. A skinny guy with a funny name. And for these past eight years, I saw how hard you worked in the face of impossible odds. I saw how you teach your children. I saw the way you treat strangers in need. I’ve seen the young men and women in uniform who meet every mission. The military families who serve and sacrifice just as well. And the wounded warriors who have never, ever quit.
You bet on me all those years ago, and I will always be grateful for the privilege you gave me to serve. But I’ll be honest with you: I’ve always had the better odds, because I’ve always bet on you. And America, I’m betting on you one more time.
I’m betting that tomorrow, most moms and dads across America won’t cast their vote for someone who denigrates their daughters from the highest office in the land. I’m betting that most Americans won’t won’t vote for someone who considers minorities and immigrants and people with disabilities as inferior. Who considers people who practice different faiths as objects of suspicion.
I’m betting that true conservatives won’t cast their vote for someone with no regard for the constitution. I’m betting that young people turn out to vote, because your future is at stake. I’m betting that men across this country will have no problem voting for the more qualified candidate who happens to be a woman. I’m betting that African Americans will vote in big numbers, because this journey we’ve been on has never been about the colour of a president but the content of his or her character. I’m betting that America will reject a politics of resentment and a politics of blame. And choose a politics that says we are stronger together. I am betting that tomorrow you will reject fear, and you’ll choose hope.
I’m betting that the wisdom and generosity of the American people will once again win the day. And that is a bet that I have never, ever lost.
Philadelphia, in this place, where our forefounders wrote the documents of freedom, in this place where they gave us the tools to protect our union, if you share my faith, then I ask you to vote. If you want a president who shares our faith in America, who has lived that faith in America, who will finally shatter a glass cieling and be a president for each and every one of us, then I am asking you to work as hard as you can this one last day to elect this fighter, this stateswoman, this mother, this grandmother, this patriot, our next president of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton.
Goose bumps!
In contrast, Donald Trump’s surrogates continued to be the ministers of doom and gloom, division, hatred. I will spare you the terrible campaign ending speeches from Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani and others. Suffice it to say that these people relish spreading darkness, pessimism and division about the country, the American people and anyone who does not think exactly like them.
The choice is between an optimistic view of the country and the world, a desire to work together to make us all stronger, a belief that we already are great as a country and divisiveness, hate and darkness.
Between someone who boasts: “Only I can fix it” and someone who humbly states: “Together we can move mountains.”
Please: Anyone who has the time: GOTV. Talk to your neighbors, friends and family members. Drive them to their voting places if they need transportation. If they don’t have time until later offer to run that errand for them or ask them to post pone until tomorrow. This is a historic election.
I am very confident the American people will make the right choice today. People tend to choose light over darkness. Kindness over hatred. As the slogan says: “LOVE TRUMPS HATE.”
Oh, and let’s not forget: “Nasty women” vote.