Clinton, aided by Obamas, makes final pitch on Independence Mall

Hillary Clinton, rallying supporters Monday with the help of the Obamas, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Bon Jovi at Independence Mall, framed Tuesday's election as an opportunity to embrace an optimistic vision of the United States and urged voters to send her to the White House.

As she spoke of "a hopeful, inclusive, bighearted America," Clinton also cast the election as high stakes, making the case against "a loose cannon who could put everything at risk."

"None of us want to wake up Wednesday morning and wish we'd done more," Clinton, also joined by her husband and daughter, told the tens of thousands of people filling the mall on the chilly night, after describing Tuesday's election choice between her and Republican rival Donald Trump as "the test of our time."

"Every issue you care about is on that ballot," the Democratic candidate said as she called for strengthening the middle class, improving education, making college affordable, and reforming criminal justice.

The last round of national polls showed Clinton with a steady lead of 3 to 6 percentage points, and battleground state surveys showed she appeared to have more potential combinations than Trump to get to the required 270 electoral votes.

She spent three of her four stops Monday in Michigan and Pennsylvania, trying to energize African American and younger voters, key parts of the coalition that helped elect Obama.

In the last few days of the campaign, Trump targeted blue-leaning states, including Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania, an indication he was battling uphill. Most recent opinion polls showed Clinton leading in all three, but Trump is hoping for a surge among white voters who lack college degrees.

Heavy turnout among Hispanics in early voting in Florida, the largest battleground prize with 29 electoral votes, as well as in Nevada and North Carolina was an encouraging sign for the Clinton campaign. Polls throughout the campaign have shown Latinos rejecting Trump, with his push for more controls on immigration and his insulting comments about Mexican immigrants.

Trump campaigned in five states Monday, including in Scranton, painting a darker picture than did Clinton. He ripped the "crooked media," attacked a "corrupt Washington establishment," and mocked Clinton.

"It's a rigged, rigged system," Trump declared in Raleigh, N.C. "And now it's up to the American people to deliver the justice that we deserve at the ballot box tomorrow."

He said the nation's legal system was an international "laughingstock" because the FBI had not charged Clinton with crimes for mishandling classified information on a private email server.

Clinton, who advocated Monday for "an America where everyone has a place," told the crowd about being introduced in New Hampshire by Khizr Khan, whose son was an Army captain killed while serving in Iraq and whose family Trump criticized this summer.

"What Mr. Khan said is . . . would his son have a place in Donald Trump's America? That's an important question for all of us, because we don't want to shrink the vision of this great country," she said. "We want to keep expanding it."

Referring to Trump's equivocation on whether he would accept the results of the election, Clinton said: "Let's show him tomorrow there will be no question about the outcome of this election."

Clinton praised the Obamas, who spoke before her, for serving the nation "with grace, strength, brilliance, and a whole lot of cool."

"The best way to thank them is to do something really important tomorrow: to vote," Clinton said.

President Obama said a vote for Clinton - his former secretary of state, who also served as a U.S. senator and was first lady - is a vote to continue the progress of the last eight years, citing 15 million new jobs and 20 million Americans who now have health insurance coverage.

It's also a rejection of "the politics of resentment," he said, and a repudiation of a Republican candidate he said was singularly unqualified by temperament, ignorance and bigotry to be president.

"Throughout this campaign Donald Trump has showed utter contempt for the values that made this nation great," said Obama, who mocked Trump as too unstable for his staff to allow him to tweet.

"Anyone who sees women as objects, who thinks of minorities and immigrants as inferior, other faiths as presumptively un-American, cannot lead this diverse, dynamic, bighearted country we love," he said.

Springsteen, touting Clinton as the candidate with a vision for America, said of Trump: "This is a man whose vision is limited to little beyond himself."

Describing her emotions on the eve of the election, Michelle Obama - introduced by former President Bill Clinton as the campaign's top surrogate - said Monday marked "perhaps the last and most important thing I can do for my country as first lady."

She spoke about how she and her husband had "a duty to ensure this country is handed over to a leader we trust," making the case for a president who reflected "behavior we hope our children will emulate."

"This election is on us. It is in our hands. If we get out and vote tomorrow, Hillary Clinton will win," Michelle Obama said. "But if we stay home, or we play around with a protest vote, then Hillary's opponent will win. Period. End of story."

The rally drew more than 30,000 people, according to the Clinton campaign. The line to get into the nighttime event, which began with performances by Springsteen and Bon Jovi, had stretched into South Philadelphia.

During the rally, President Obama also urged a vote for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty, who was in a close race with incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

"You cannot just stick Hillary with the Republicans in Congress who are already promising more obstruction in Washington - more shutdowns, years of investigations and hearings," he said.

mhanna@phillynews.com

856-779-3232 @maddiehanna

www.philly.com/christiechronicles