Hillary Clinton asks for landslide victory to rebuke Trump’s ‘bigotry and bullying’

Clintons poll numbers have improved since the recent scandals broke. RealClear Politics running average of national surveys has Clinton ahead by 6.7 points in a two-way race.

Still, in the next 26 days, she said, Weve got a job to do.

Her Republican challenger batted away accusations on Wednesday and Thursday, threatened to sue the New York Times and blamed negative stories on a conspiracy between Clinton and the media. Clinton, in contrast, talked about job growth and healing the nation at rallies in Nevada and Colorado and smaller events in San Francisco.

In Pueblo, Colorado, on Wednesday, she commiserated with a protester who tried to shout her down: Gotta feel a little sorry for them. Theyve had a bad couple of weeks.

But she also talked during this west coast swing about how hard it has been to focus on important policy matters when running against a candidate like Trump a man who has polarized the nation and his own party for months and fought against allegations of sexual impropriety for the past week.

As negative as this campaign has become, because of the person who achieved the nomination on the other side, you cannot talk about what we should do to make sure that every child has preschool education, Clinton said Thursday afternoon.

We havent had a chance to talk about how were going to fix what doesnt work with the Affordable Care Act, she continued. We havent gotten a chance to talk about how were going to defend womens rights and Planned Parenthood, gay rights … voter rights … disability rights workers rights And we havent had much of a chance to talk about how I intend to take on the gun lobby.

Throughout the day Thursday, she lauded her volunteers and talked up her ground operation, the critical network of phone banks, neighborhood organizers and get-out-the-vote efforts. That detailed organization is a Clinton hallmark but sorely lacking in the Trump campaign.

And she contrasted Trumps scorched-earth attacks with the soaring speech Michelle Obama gave on her behalf on Thursday. If you havent seen it, Clinton said, you need to see her speech in New Hampshire.

In fact, Obamas oratory was a Clinton campaign highlight Thursday, a much-shared, widely tweeted and overwhelmingly celebrated defense of girls and womens rights not to be demeaned or assaulted by anyone, not a construction worker on the street or the man who would be president.

I cant believe that Im saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women, Obama said, her voice shaking with emotion. And I have to tell you that I cant stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core.