Clinton continues gaining ground at Trump’s expense — UPI/CVoter poll

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, U.S., July 27, 2016.

“There’s nothing like winning to change minds”, Clinton said, adding that the “political landscape” favors passage of the long-shelved legislation.

Clinton started the week with a hefty flub Sunday when she told Fox News’s host Chris Wallace that Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey had agreed that her answers about her emails were truthful.

Clinton’s surprising edge in Georgia follows a week of favorable national and battleground state polling for the former secretary of state after a bounce from the Democratic National Convention and fueled by Trump’s own hard stretch. Comey had only said there was no evidence that she had lied to the FBI during its investigation into the matter. “What I told the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly – so I may have short-circuited”. ‘We have people outside who couldn’t get in.

But when asked about Clinton’s oft-repeated claim that she never sent or received information marked classified to or from her server, Comey told lawmakers: “That’s not true”.

But critics say that statement does not square with the Federal Bureau of Investigation findings. “None of those emails were marked classified in the headings, instead they bore “(C)” marks within the text indicating classified portions. It seems hard to believe that a candidate who’s already leading, and a majority of whose voters are enthusiastic-ish about her, is going to falter and lose to a candidate whose own base of support is notably less enthusiastic. And 48% say Clinton would do a better job of keeping the country safe from terrorism, up from 45% before the conventions. “I could diagnose him”, she deadpanned. “There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents”.

No less importantly, there are proportionally fewer of them in the Peach State than there used to be.

In campaign stops from Pennsylvania to Colorado and in new television advertisements this week, Clinton has presented herself as a cerebral policy-maker and Donald Trump as a heartless businessman, driving home a theme that her campaign hopes will define the race. Though it was more of a panel discussion, Clinton’s campaign billed it as a press conference. Clinton surged to a 15-point lead over Trump in the same poll, gaining with two constituencies crucial to a Republican victory, whites and men. Early Friday a new jobs report also showed a growth in employment numbers-255,000 new jobs in July while only an increase of 188,000 was expected.

“I do recognize I have work to do”, she said.

Trump has a lengthy business history, and has always been one of the most powerful names in business in America. When she ran for Senate in NY in 2000, she noted, people had reservations about her candidacy.

She partially succeeded at the first, and failed at the second.

Clinton came to the gathering pledging to try to unify the country, while cataloging Trump’s comments targeting various minority communities, particularly Latinos.

Donald Trump is going where no Republican has gone for 20 years.

“Or when another news organization gets banned for reporting what he says”.

Then she responded: “Can I tell you that I am blessed to have a crew of great friends, and I’ve had two chiefs-of-staff who were my African-American women friends, Maggie Williams and Cheryl Mills”. “The stakes are as high as they’ve ever been in our lifetimes”.

A bipartisan effort to overhaul the nation’s immigration system passed the Senate in 2013, but died in the House in the face of strident Republican opposition. If she wins these states on Election Day, the former Sec. of State will split the South and break the decades old GOP stranglehold on the region.