WASHINGTON — As Hillary Clinton's once-sizable lead has evaporated in national surveys and must-win swing states, her supporters are speaking out with a new urgency, urging core followers to set aside any qualms and get behind Clinton with enthusiasm.
President Obama, in a speech Saturday night before the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, bluntly stated that African-Americans need to affirm his legacy by helping put another Democrat in the White House.
"I will consider it a personal insult — an insult to my legacy — if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good send-off? Go vote," Obama admonished.
Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, told young voters in recent days to shun third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein and stay with the Democratic ticket. "This is not the time for a protest vote,'' he said in upstate New York Friday.
Clinton's running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, is scheduled to visit Philadelphia Monday to explain in detail how Clinton's plans are good for millennial voters. He gave a preview of top issues of interest to younger Americans while making the rounds of Sunday morning TV talk shows: climate change, women's reproductive rights, immigration reform, gay rights, and college affordability.
"It's on our shoulders to make the case. But on at least five litmus test issues, the differences between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are vast,'' Kaine said on NBC's "Meet the Press.''
Asked about the dramatic narrowing of Clinton's lead in the last few weeks, Kaine said the campaign always believed the race would be close.
Clinton has a history of blowing leads. It happened in 2008, in the primary race she lost to Obama. During this year's Democratic nominating process, Sanders attracted unexpected momentum before Clinton rallied to defeat him.
To make up ground against Trump, Clinton will be making what the campaign says is an "aspirational'' closing argument to the American people that will provide a reason to vote for the first female major party nominee for president, instead of just pointing out Trump's flaws.
Another part of the comeback plan will require calming Democratic alarm about the state of the race.
"People need to take a deep breath," said Anita Dunn, who was the communications director for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. "Public polls always tighten when you get to the fall, when voters start paying more attention and voters start coming home to their political parties."
Even so, this topsy-turvy 2016 presidential election is finally beginning to take the shape of something familiar: a Democrat and Republican candidate battling it out in the same swing states that have decided the last three presidential elections.
"It seemed like there was an opportunity for her to put the race away. And people were beginning to act like it's going to be a blowout," said Matt Borges, the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. "The trend is certainly going in our direction now. She's tanking. She's foundering. But nobody should be celebrating now. Donald Trump's path is tougher."
The Republican nominee could threaten his surge with his pattern of reckless and controversial statements. His Friday reversal, after five years of stoking conspiracy theories, about Obama's birth origin has dominated the news for days. Trump also veered off script at a rally Friday night and called on Clinton's Secret Service detail to disarm and "see what happens to her."
Still, the Republican candidate bills himself as a candidate of change, which seems to be attractive this year as institutions of civil society are seen as failing. Clinton's counter is that Trump's brand of change is too scary to contemplate seriously.
The Clinton campaign wants to show that its candidate offers a different type of change: She can make a fractured government work. Her team is planning more "working sessions" on various issues modeled after one they staged earlier this month on national security. In that forum she brought together respected foreign policy leaders including Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security Secretary under President George W. Bush.
The campaign is planning a series of speeches in coming days and weeks, including one on the "inclusive economy" to highlight the detailed plans she has for the country should she win.
But a common worry among Clinton's allies is that she's not particularly good at connecting with the large audiences that become more of a campaign staple toward the end of a race. The candidate acknowledged Thursday that — echoing a sentiment expressed at the Democratic National Convention — "when it comes to public service, I'm better at the service part than the public part."
That's a reality about her that Democrats find distressing in a volatile campaign where issues of substance have taken a back seat. A Democratic congressional aide bemoaned the lack of excitement for Clinton.
"She's losing in Ohio. She's losing!" said the person. The person was referring to a pair of polls, one by Bloomberg News that put Trump up by five points in the Buckeye State and another by CNN showing Trump with a four-point lead.
Democrats are quietly grousing that Clinton wasted time in the second half of August eschewing traditional campaign events and focusing heavily on fund-raising from wealthy enclaves.
The tour included stops in Greenwich, Conn. (at the home of real estate magnate Rich Richman); Martha's Vineyard; Beverly Hills; and a tour of the South Fork of Long Island including parties in Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, Wainscott, and East Hampton. Clinton's allies say that is hard work for the candidate.
"There was no 'off the campaign trail' in August, it may not have been to the liking of some," said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas last week on "The Bill Press Show." "It was fund-raising, fund-raising, fund-raising. It was not sleeping, sleeping, sleeping."
In a presidential campaign, the seven weeks left is a lifetime. Before voting starts in most of the country there will be three presidential debates, the first one set for Sept. 26. That clash is expected to be one of the most watched presidential debates in history.
"There's a rhythm to the campaign," said Senator Barbara Boxer of California. "After the convention the bump wears off for each side. And they start even."
Boxer pointed out that Clinton has a much stronger ground game than Trump. The campaign began deploying workers to battleground states at the end of April and boasts 54 offices in Ohio, 57 in Florida, and 38 in Pennsylvania.
But despite all of this infrastructure, even Trump detractors say that he has got a message that cuts through the normal political noise.
When asked why Trump was doing well in the country, Senator Susan Collins of Maine pointed to the problems in her home state.
"We've lost eight paper mills in five years," explained Collins, who is a Republican but is not supporting Trump. "Some of those jobs have been lost because of poorly negotiated trade agreements. So when Donald Trump talks about that, his message resonates with communities in northern Maine in particular."
Annie Linskey can be reached at annie.linskey@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @annielinskey.