donald trump speaks to the crowd at a rally in miami on wednesday, nov. 2, 2016.  | m. scott mahaskey by shane goldmacher 11/02/16 02:10 pm edt updated 11/02/16 08:18 pm edt miami <u+2014> donald trump is suddenly brimming with confidence again. in the days since the fbi<u+2019>s surprise announcement that it is examining new emails related to hillary clinton and her private server, trump<u+2019>s bounce back in the polls has put an extra spring in his step. story continued below <u+201c>we are going to win the great state of florida and we are going to win back the white house, 100 percent,<u+201d> trump predicted wednesday, as he commandeered the stage for a rally in downtown miami. after excising polls from his stump speech amid his october slump, they<u+2019>re very much back and, instead of complaining about them being rigged, trump was cautioning against overconfidence. <u+201c>pretend we<u+2019>re slightly behind,<u+201d> he urged, speaking from teleprompters set up to block the glare from the midday sun. <u+201c>we don<u+2019>t want to blow it.<u+201d> later, in pensacola, trump channeled the counsel of his top advisers out loud. <u+201c>we<u+2019>ve got to be nice and cool, nice and calm. alright, stay on point donald, stay on point,<u+201d> trump said as the crowd of thousands broke out in laughter. <u+201c>no sidetracks, donald. nice and easy.<u+201d> in this final week, trump has released new ads and is trying to make last-minute electoral incursions into traditionally blue states, including wisconsin, where he campaigned on tuesday, new mexico and michigan. clinton, meanwhile, has gone back to buy last-minute ads in states where she had gone off the airwaves <u+2014> colorado and virginia <u+2014> while buying ads in michigan and new mexico to counter trump<u+2019>s push. in florida, the quintessential battleground, trump relished <u+201c>the enthusiasm, the love<u+201d> of the crowd. <u+201c>i love that sign, <u+2018>blacks for trump<u+2019><u+201d> he said, going on to point out signs for hispanics for trump and women for trump. he ignored a large, handwritten one about alicia machado, the former beauty pageant queen with whom he has publicly tangled. by josh gerstein it was the smallest of signs of discipline for a candidate who has shown little for much of the race. but his advisers counseled trump to avoid any self-inflicted wounds in these crucial final days and on tuesday he hewed unusually close to that script, delivering a speech that focused on obamacare in a philadelphia suburb and a tame, news-less rally in eau claire, wisconsin. in miami, he even slipped in a reference to a local issue, speaking about <u+201c>protecting the herbert hoover dike at lake okeechobee.<u+201d> for the most part, trump focused on clinton <u+2014> with a healthy side of media bashing. <u+201c>did you hear about this little event? the fbi reopening the investigation?<u+201d> trump said gleefully, at his first of three stops across florida on wednesday. the early voting here <u+2014> nearly 4.5 million ballots have already been cast <u+2014> has offered more signs for optimism, as republicans lead in terms of ballots returned, 1.798 million to 1.780 million. four years ago, it was the reverse, as democrats held the advantage, 1.141 million to 1.091 million. trump wasn<u+2019>t getting into such specifics. he declared clinton<u+2019>s email server <u+201c>the biggest scandal since watergate.<u+201d> <u+201c>she wants to blame everyone else for her mounting legal troubles but she really has no one to blame but herself,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>lock her up,<u+201d> boomed back the calls from the crowd. trump said her election would bring <u+201c>an unprecedented and protracted constitutional crisis<u+201d> because of the looming investigation, and suggested americans would not want to relive the clinton white house of the 1990s. <u+201c>did we just go through this?<u+201d> he asked. <u+201c>she<u+2019>ll be in court for her entire tenure and she<u+2019>ll be convicted.<u+201d> by steven shepard , louis nelson and nolan d. mccaskill still, when trump gets confident, he can get aggressive, particularly against the media. he gloated about the most recent earnings report of the new york times. and he whacked at the media writ large for <u+201c>abandon[ing] all pretense of fairness to take a side and try to pick a president.<u+201d> <u+201c>cnn sucks,<u+201d> the crowd roared. <u+201c>nasty media,<u+201d> some yelled. before trump took the stage, one pro-trump supporter sat directly behind the press section and shouted at how the media have sold out <u+201c>for a few shekels.<u+201d> trump singled out nbc<u+2019>s katy tur in the crowd to attack her coverage. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s something happening, katy. you<u+2019>re not reporting it, katy,<u+201d> he said. the aside was a reminder of how close trump is, at any moment, to launching a new and unwelcome storyline. by bill scher by joshua zeitz by thomas wright by jack shafer
donald trump<u+2019>s soaring spirits - politico
shane goldmacher josh gerstein steven shepard louis nelson nolan d. mccaskill jack shafer