No rest in final campaign hours for Obama, Romney

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama points to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a cam­paign event at Nation­wide Arena, Mon­day, in Colum­bus. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

JULIE PACE, KASIE HUNT

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — The White House the prize, Pres­i­dent Barack Obama and Mitt Rom­ney raced through a final full day of cam­paign­ing on Mon­day through Ohio and other bat­tle­ground states hold­ing the keys to vic­tory in a tight race. Both promised brighter days ahead for a nation still strug­gling with a slug­gish econ­omy and high joblessness.

“Our work is not done yet,” Obama told a cheer­ing crowd of nearly 20,000 in chilly Madi­son, Wis., implor­ing his audi­ence to give him another four years.

Rom­ney pro­jected opti­mism as he neared the end of his six-year quest for the pres­i­dency. “If you believe we can do bet­ter. If you believe Amer­ica should be on a bet­ter course. If you’re tired of being tired … then I ask you to vote for real change,” he said in a Vir­ginia sub­urb of the nation’s cap­i­tal. With many of the late polls in key states tilt­ing slightly against him, he decided to cam­paign on Elec­tion Day in Ohio and Penn­syl­va­nia, where he and Repub­li­cans made a big, late push.

The pres­i­dency aside, there are 33 Sen­ate seats on the bal­lot Tues­day, and accord­ing to one Repub­li­can offi­cial, a grow­ing sense of res­ig­na­tion among his party’s rank and file that Democ­rats will hold their majority.

The sit­u­a­tion was reversed in the House, where Democ­rats made no claims they were on the verge of vic­tory in pur­suit of the 25 seats they need to gain control.

National opin­ion polls in the pres­i­den­tial race made the pop­u­lar vote a vir­tual tie.

In state-by-state sur­veys, it appeared Obama held small advan­tages in Nevada, Ohio, Iowa and Wis­con­sin — enough to deliver a sec­ond term if they endured, but not so sig­nif­i­cant that they could with­stand an Elec­tion Day surge by Rom­ney sup­port­ers. Both men appealed to an ever smaller uni­verse of unde­cided voters.

More than 30 mil­lion absen­tee or early bal­lots have been cast, includ­ing in excess of 3 mil­lion in Florida. The state also had a legal con­tro­versy, in the form of a Demo­c­ra­tic law­suit seek­ing an exten­sion of time for pre-Election Day voting.

There were other con­cerns, logis­ti­cal rather than legal.

Offi­cials in one part of New Jer­sey deliv­ered vot­ing equip­ment to emer­gency shel­ters so vot­ers dis­placed by Super­storm Sandy last week could cast bal­lots. New York City made arrange­ments for shut­tle buses to pro­vide trans­porta­tion for some in hard-hit areas unable to reach their polling places.

Judg­ing from the long early vot­ing lines in some places and the com­ments made in oth­ers, the vot­ers were more than ready to have their say.

“I watch the news all the time, and I am ready for it to be over,” said Jen­nifer Walker, 38, of Colum­bus, Ohio, who said she took time off from work to attend the president’s speech dur­ing the day in a show of sup­port. “I feel like he is get­ting bet­ter with the econ­omy. I don’t think it’s hope­less. It takes time.”

But Bryan Dobes, 21, a Uni­ver­sity of Iowa stu­dent from sub­ur­ban Chicago, voted for Rom­ney on Mon­day and said unem­ploy­ment and spend­ing have been too high under Obama. “He promised a lot of hope and change, and I’m not see­ing it,” he said of the president.

“No retreat, no sur­ren­der,” sang rock icon Bruce Spring­steen, warm­ing up Obama’s crowd on a frosty morn­ing out­side the State Capi­tol in Madi­son, Wis. The Boss then boarded Air Force One for his first flight. “Pretty cool,” he judged it.

Rom­ney had Kid Rock and the Mar­shall Tucker Band in the wings for his late appear­ances in Ohio and New Hampshire.

“This is it,” the chal­lenger said in a last-minute emailed request for cam­paign donations.

“I will lead us out of this eco­nomic cri­sis by imple­ment­ing pro-growth poli­cies that will cre­ate 12 mil­lion new jobs. With your help, I will deliver real change and a real recov­ery. Amer­ica will be strong again.”

In his longest cam­paign day, Rom­ney raced from Florida to a pair of speeches in Vir­ginia to Ohio and then an elec­tion eve rally in New Hampshire.

Obama selected Wis­con­sin, Ohio and Iowa for his final cam­paign day, an itin­er­ary that reflected his campaign’s deci­sion to try and erect a Mid­west­ern fire­wall against Romney’s challenge.

Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and Repub­li­can run­ning mate Paul Ryan of Wis­con­sin went through their final cam­paign paces, as well.

In Ster­ling, Va., not far from Wash­ing­ton, the vice pres­i­dent accused Repub­li­cans of run­ning away from their record, but added, “a leop­ard can’t change his spots.”

Ryan started out in Reno, Nev., where he said the pres­i­dent has come up short in his promises to change Wash­ing­ton and repair the economy.

“This may be the best that Barack Obama can offer, but this is not the best Amer­ica can,” he said, before fly­ing off to Col­orado and Ohio. Then it was home to Wis­con­sin, where he is on the bal­lot for re-election to Con­gress in case Repub­li­cans were unsuc­cess­ful in the pres­i­den­tial campaign.

Con­sci­en­tious to the end, sup­port­ers kept knock­ing on doors in search of a pos­si­bly deci­sive vote.

In Enfield, N.H., Obama vol­un­teer Sarah Ayres recalled dri­ving up a deserted dirt road, unsure if she would find the house she was look­ing for. She turned down a long dri­ve­way, she said, got out of her car, and was met by a friendly, white goat.

“There were no peo­ple home, but the goat was there, so I don’t know if I should count that as a con­tact,” she joked.

Posted by AP News on Nov 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.