The protagonists are set: Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. The battleground Fifty states.
The protagonists are set: Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. The battleground Fifty states. Voters will now be treated to a historic, bruising spectacle as two of America’s most polarising figures wage war for the White House.
On the Democratic side is a candidate rich with political experience, a pioneering if controversial stateswoman embracing her chance to become the nation’s first female Commander-in-Chief.
The Republican standing in her way is the brash billionaire businessman and political neophyte who rewrote the campaign playbook as he vanquished his many rivals for the nomination with a mudslinging unparalleled in modern American politics.
All signs point toward a negative campaign as Ms Clinton accuses Mr Trump of being temperamentally unfit to serve and the New York billionaire charges Clinton has a dark past with shades of corruption and a weak record as President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state.
Ms Clinton euphorically seized the Democratic Party mantle on Tuesday, seizing the nomination in dramatic fashion with primary wins in four of six states including the grand prize, California.
On perhaps the biggest night of her political career, as she declared a historic milestone for women, she assailed Mr Trump for his divisiveness and his trademark slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
“That’s code for let’s take America backward,” she said, “back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all.”
Mr Trump was pledging a tough fight, choosing to lay into Ms Clinton in his own presumptive victory speech and accusing her and her former President husband Bill of enriching themselves by “selling access, favours, (and) government contracts.”
