By Eyobong Ita

Who would have thought that what resembled a bad joke when billionaire Donald Trump announced his run for president of the United States of America would translate into one of the most exciting elections in modern American history?

No doubt, Obama’s energizing campaign and historic win in 2008 still takes the cake in terms of excitement and racial harmony for a former community organizer who shot into limelight as an Illinois state senator. His speech at the 2004 Democratic convention reminded voters that despite the Blue and Red states of the Union representing Democrats and Republicans, there was no Blue or Red America, only the United States of America.

Fast forward to 2015 when the exciting, loquacious and bombastic real estate mogul delivered his announcement with controversial statements that included calling Mexican immigrants rapists and going on to mock and belittle almost all his opponents, even accusing the father of Ted Cruz (his most formidable GOP primary election opponent) as having a hand in the killing of President John Kennedy. Not to mention 11 women accusing him of touching them indecently without their consent. And on the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of the Benghazi uprising that claimed the life of U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other American diplomats and her never-ending email scandals have haunted the Democrat candidate and threatened to derail her campaign.

Now, with three days to the election, the excitement is soaked with tension. Once again, Trump has roared back to life and is threatening to cause one of the biggest upsets in modern American election history. The latest FBI investigation into the emails of one of Clinton’s closest aides has given new life to the Trump campaign and energized his base. However, consider the Trump resurgence too late to cause the upset that would have shaken the world. Here’s why: Early Voting. With more than 22 million votes already cast, about 4 million more Democrats have voted, compared to Republicans, giving Hillary a clear advantage. Almost 100 percent of early voting Democrats are expected to vote for Hillary Clinton while some of the early Republican voters have publicly said they did not vote for Trump. Even Trump seems to realize that the early votes would probably decide this election, hence he recently launched an appeal to Democrats who may have regretted voting for Clinton to go change their votes in the seven states of the union that allow early voters to change their votes before Election Day. It’s not likely that many (if any) voters would heed that call.

Also, Trump does not have as much campaign cash to spend compared to Clinton. And Trump is losing the war on star surrogates. While Trump is his biggest surrogate, with his running mate Gov. Mike Pence and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as supporting casts, Clinton has an army of surrogates, from President Obama to V/P Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama to President Bill Clinton, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Clinton’s running mate Sen. Tim Kaine and a host of others. These surrogates will crisscross the battleground states to make a last minute push for Clinton, more than Trump can do in the remaining few days. That’s a major advantage for Clinton.

Here are more reasons to back that up.

Watch out for these Battleground States

Here are the battle ground states likely to decide this election: Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Hampshire, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. At press time, Trump was leading in Ohio, Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire while they were tied in Colorado. Clinton was leading in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina.

Utah remains a toss-up state with independent candidate and former CIA operative Evan McMullin threatening to win that state. (Yes, that same McMullin who disappeared from the radar after announcing his bid for the White House). However, the polls are changing by the day and the situation could change by the time you read this.

Electoral College Picture
With three days to the election, Clinton still has a projected 274 Electoral College votes, according to the latest NBC News poll analyzed on Thursday. The best news for Clinton is that going by this poll, she can afford to lose six battleground states – Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Arizona, Utah and New Hampshire – and still win the election. In order to upset Clinton, Trump needs to win all six states and add Michigan to his “W” column, or forget the White House. Well, unless he can win a few other traditionally Democrat-leaning states, such as Virginia, which looks very unlikely it will be a tough call for him.

Overall, I called this election for Clinton weeks ago. I stand by that call. Trump’s surge in the poll would not be enough to get him to the White House. Hence, I predict that the election would not be as close as many pundits are expecting. By midnight on November 8, Hillary Clinton would be projected the winner and next president of the United States of America.