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SAN FRANCISCO — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton picked up Monday where they left off after their nasty and rancorous debate, traveling across the country to take potshots at each other.
But more of the same isn't going to cut it for Trump as the days click down toward the Nov. 8 election. Clinton's poll numbers are on the rise, and an Oct. 19 Las Vegas debate is the single remaining major event on the campaign calendar. That means even tougher talk from the Republican nominee won't be a surprise, said Corey Cook, dean of the School of Public Service at Boise State University in Idaho.
"I get it from Trump's perspective,'' he said. "At this point, it's 'close your eyes and swing as hard as you can.'''
It's different for Clinton, who has to be concerned about not making a mistake that will let Trump get back in the game.
"For her, it doesn't make sense to stay on the attack,'' Cook said. "Her focus has to be on how to ensure the highest turnout possible.''
At a rally Tuesday afternoon, Trump had no apologies for anything he said at Sunday's St. Louis debate. In fact, he said much of it again.
Speaking to an overflow crowd of about 2,500 cheering supporters in a high school gym outside Pittsburgh, Trump called Bill Clinton "the worst abuser of women'' to ever become president and accused Hillary Clinton of helping him do it.
The "last 72 hours has framed what this election is all about,'' Trump told the crowd, saying it's the "American people fighting back against corrupt politicians who don't care about anything but staying in power.''
When the crowd started a chant of "Lock her up! Lock her up!'' Trump had a ready response.
"Special prosecutor, here we come,'' Trump said, referring to his debate night promise to investigate and jail Clinton if he is elected president.
Campaigning in Detroit, Clinton jabbed Trump for what she said was his refusal to give more than a halfhearted apology for a taped 2005 conversation in which he talked about attempting to seduce a married woman and said that he is free to grope unwilling women because as a celebrity, "you can do anything.''
Trump's repeated dismissal of the incident as "locker room talk'' won't wash, Clinton said.
"That is just a really weak excuse for behaving badly and mistreating people,'' she said.
The slap at her opponent, though, was almost an afterthought for the former secretary of state. After the voter registration event in Detroit, Clinton flew to Columbus, Ohio, for an evening rally outdoors at Ohio State University.
The timing of that stop was carefully planned and shows what the rest of her campaign might well look like. In Ohio, Tuesday is the last day to register to vote in the election, and early voting begins Wednesday. Clinton also is working hard to pull support from the young, often liberal voters on college campuses.
That theme is being repeated at Clinton events across the country. On Monday, her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, was in Denver for a get-out-the-vote rally and concert with rocker Dave Matthews. Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, was in Minnesota and Wisconsin for voter-themed events.
On Tuesday, the last day to register in Florida, Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore will be in Miami for a rally, while President Obama is scheduled to headline a Clinton event in Greensboro, N.C.
"At this point it's all about getting out the vote,'' said Melissa Michelson, a political science professor at Menlo College in Atherton. "Both sides have to worry about getting their people to the polls.''
Recent polls could make that more difficult for both Trump and Clinton, though for very different reasons.
For Trump, the numbers are grim and likely to get worse. The RealClearPolitics average of national polls shows the GOP candidate losing to Clinton by almost six percentage points even before most surveys had taken account of the release Friday of Trump's taped comments from 2005. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken over the weekend found Clinton leading Trump by 14 percentage points, 52 percent to 38 percent, in a head-to-head matchup.
"Trump did a much better job Sunday night than he did in the first debate ... and gave his supporters what they wanted to hear,'' Michelson said. "But I don't think that's enough to turn the undecided voters he needs.''
For Clinton, though, the new polling numbers could turn out to be too good, she said.
"Clinton's worry is that if she's winning big, her supporters might figure they don't have to show up,'' Michelson added. "Voting is inconvenient, so why will people take out a chunk of their day to vote it they don't feel they have to.''
For Trump, the election is increasingly becoming a "me vs. them'' affair, with "them'' being not only Clinton and the Democrats, but also a GOP leadership that he has never been part of and, as an outsider, owes nothing to.
When House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Monday that he would not campaign alongside Trump nor defend him, Trump fired off a tweet saying that "Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee.''
And after a weekend when Republicans facing tough elections, from Arizona Sen. John McCain on down, were abandoning Trump and heading for the political lifeboats, Trump tweeted Sunday: "Tremendous support (except for some Republican 'leadership'). Thank you.''
For Trump, the large, rowdy and enthusiastic rallies that have become his campaign's trademark now are aimed at the GOP leadership every bit as much as at Clinton.
Trump "is showing he has a base of support in the party and suggesting that he can extract pain from Republicans who walk away from him,'' Cook said.
It's important for a front-runner like Clinton to take advantage of the war going on inside the Republican Party, he added.
"She'd be wise to focus on the prospect of governing, stay above the fray and keep working to bring out voters,'' Cook said.
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