Clinton, Trump in virtual dead heat on eve of 1st debate
PTI
Washington
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump are in virtual dead heat on the eve of the first presidential debate, a latest opinion poll said Sunday.
Clinton, who is the first ever woman to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major political party, faces off real estate mogul Trump in the first of a series of three presidential debates beginning Monday at Hofstra University in Hampstead, about an hour's drive from New York City.
The two leaders are locked in a neck-and-neck battle, with just over a month to go for the elections.
Representing the Democratic Party, Clinton (49 per cent) is two points ahead of Trump (47 per cent) among likely voters in a two-way match up, The Washington Post and ABC News said in a joint poll carried out by them. The two leaders are tied at 46 per cent among all registered voters in the two-way match up.
Clinton (46 per cent) leads Trump (44 per cent) in four way match up with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson (five per cent) and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at one per cent.
The two party nominees are tied at 41 per cent among all registered voters in the four-way match up.
Clinton's two-point edge among likely voters, in both the four-way and two-way ballot tests, is within the survey's 4.5 percentage-point margin of sampling error, it said.
The latest poll shows how much the presidential contest has tightened in recent weeks and reflects the catch-up done by the 70-year-old reality TV star in the last nine weeks when he was trailing behind the 68-year-old former secretary of state by almost double digits.
Having changed his campaign team twice and also his strategy, and delivering a series of major policy speeches, Trump has erased the advantage that Clinton had after the two back-to-back conventions in July, the poll said.
Trump, meanwhile, is still facing doubts about his qualifications and temperament.
As Clinton has run into some turbulence, Trump has worked to present himself as a more disciplined candidate in an effort to attract more support from voters who traditionally have supported Republican nominees, the poll said.
“The findings underscore how much the presidential contest has tightened in recent weeks, after Clinton emerged from the two national conventions with a clear lead and with Trump on the defensive,” The Post wrote.
In RealClearPolitics, which keeps track of all major polls, Clinton is ahead of Trump by 2.5 percentage points in the latest average of polls.
Clinton, who is eyeing to break the highest glass ceiling in the US, has constantly led in the poll since this summer.
Much will be at stake when Clinton and Trump meet Monday night, in what is said to be one of the largest television audiences ever for a presidential debate.
A vast 74 per cent of Americans, eight in 10 voters, plan to watch the debate. While 44 per cent expect Clinton to win, 34 per cent think Trump will lead.
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New York Times endorses Clinton
WASHINGTON: The New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Sunday, saying
her intelligence, record of public service and other strengths qualify her for the White House.
In an editorial, the influential Times as expected threw its weight behind Clinton and dismissed Donald Trump as "the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history."
But Americans should not vote for the Democrat Clinton simply because the alternative is Trump, the paper argued.
Trump "discloses nothing concrete about himself or his plans while promising the moon and offering the stars on layaway," it said.
Rather, the Times said, the best case for voting for Clinton is to consider the challenges the United States face at home and abroad and what it called Clinton's capacity to rise to them.
The editorial was published two days before a critical moment in the campaign - the first TV debate pitting Clinton against Trump.
