WASHINGTON: They're mopping up. The risk of pitfalls and pratfalls is acknowledged in cursory fashion, as an emboldened Hillary Clinton changes gears - with the presidency seemingly in the bag, the Democratic candidate is decidedly more presidential, talking about bringing the country together and working to lift the chances of her down-ticket congressional colleagues.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told CNN on Sunday: "These battleground states are called that for a reason - they are going to be incredibly close. We don't want to get ahead of our skis here - we are just as focused on Ohio, Iowa, Florida as we have ever been."
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Trump: 'If the people come out, we're gonna win'
Donald Trump says that he'll be packing his schedule with events from now until Election Day so that he won't have any regrets.
Clinton still leads in the national polls by an average of 6 per cent. And on Sunday a new ABC News tracking poll gave her a 12-point lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump, who languished in the high 30s.
With most of the polls ticking upwards as Clinton has been seen to have won all three candidates' debates, her campaign and significant elements of the GOP campaign machine have clearly written off Trump.
On Sunday, Clinton was dismissive of Trump - seemingly forgetful of the wild swings in the campaign to date, with no less than six poll cycles in which she has squandered a significant lead to be neck-and-neck with Trump, and perhaps not as mindful of the risks posed by a possible WikiLeaks dump or a terrorist incident.
Campaigning in Raleigh, North Carolina, Clinton said that, because she had already spent more than four hours in debates with Trump, "I don't even think about responding to him any more."
She told a church congregation: "There are many people in our country willing to reach across the divide, regardless of what you have heard in this campaign. There are people - millions and millions of people - who are asking themselves these hard questions, who want to find a way to work together to solve these problems we face."
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway admitted on Sunday that Trump was losing to Clinton. And when Karl Rove, the reputed mastermind behind George W. Bush's two successful campaigns, was asked about Trump's chances of pulling off a comeback, he spoke bluntly: "I don't see it happening."
And several GOP support groups, such as the US Chamber of Commerce and various Republican super PACs changed gears too, revealing an implicit writing-off of Trump's chances of winning. In new rounds of advertising they would acknowledge Clinton's likely victory and plead for down-ticket support to have GOP numbers in the House and the Senate to rein in a Clinton White House.
Meanwhile the big names of the Obama administration are Democratic rock stars.
Barack and Michelle Obama, soaring in the polls, and vice-president Joe Biden are criss-crossing the country to ginger up turnout - whereas few Democrats would walk down the street with either of the Obamas four years ago.
The political landscape has changed dramatically since the party conventions in July.
Frank assessment: Republican strategist Karl Rove. Photo: AP
Now it seems that the Democrats will snatch the four seats they need to control the Senate; but while they might go close, taking the 30 GOP-held seats necessary for control of the House looks like a stretch.
Trump left Cleveland in July, claiming he'd whip Democratic strongholds such as California and New York state from Clinton. But this week he lags Clinton in all but one of the five swing states identified by Conway as "must-wins".
Worse, in states such as Georgia and Arizona, and even reliable Texas, Trump's lead in the polls is within the margin of error.
Trump is now at the mercy of his own self-belief, racing from rally to rally as he attempts to talk to voters, over or around the mainstream media, which continues to be rude enough to address his significant shortcomings as a candidate. With the debates and the conventions behind him, there are no more opportunities to be a klutz, or not, before huge national audiences.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway admits her candidate is behind. Photo: Bloomberg
With little more than two weeks to November 8 and millions of early votes already being cast, the seven most respected electoral forecasters are giving Clinton majorities of 278 to 352 votes in the Electoral College - where she needs 270 to win.
Trump is so in the tank with newspaper editors and publishers that up until the weekend none of the "major" newspapers in the country had endorsed him.
Finally, on Saturday he won his first press endorsement - but it's something of an embarrassment, because the newspaper in question, The Las Vegas Review-Journal, was bought late last year by billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a big Trump supporter and GOP donor.