After a gruelling 18-month battle, the final US campaign day has arrived for Barack Obama and presidential rival Mitt Romney
The candidates have attended hundreds of rallies, fundraisers and town halls, spent literally billions on attack ads, ground games, and get out the vote efforts, and squared off in three intense debates.
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Their running mates — Vice President Joe Biden and Republican congressman Paul Ryan — have laid out the rationales for their bosses’ aspirations; First Lady Michelle Obama, Romney’s wife Ann and countless surrogates on both sides have made the case.
Face-off: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are neck and neck in swing states which will decide the winner of the White House and as the clock ticked they have been making surprise visits to sway voters. Pics/AFP
Monday in America marks the final attempt by incumbent and challenger to convince the narrowing sliver of undecided voters that their policies, their platforms, their approach to leading America forward are the right ones come 2013.
And with polls showing that, for the most part, each has as equal a shot at the White House as the other, Obama and Romney will engage in unvarnished efforts to mobilise their core supporters.
“I need you, Ohio,” Obama admitted to a 20,000-strong crowd in Cincinnati, in a state for which both candidates are fighting tooth and nail.
“And if you’re willing to work with me, and knock on some doors with me, if you’re willing to early vote for me, make some phone calls for me, turn out for me, we’ll win Ohio. We will win this election,” the US president said.
Both candidates campaigned deep into the night on Sunday, with Romney too imploring his supporters to get out the vote in the handful of battleground states where the next occupant of the White House will be decided.
“We’ve got a little work to do in the coming days... which is to make sure we have a win on Tuesday night,” the Republican nominee said at a night rally in Newport News, Virginia.
The final dash underlined the tightness of a race that is drawing to a close with
the rival candidates and their aides confidently predicting victory after months of campaigning and conflicting fortunes in opinion polls.
As the clock ticked, Romney’s efforts included a surprise foray into Pennsylvania, a Democratic-leaning state that Republican strategists say is breaking his way. “We’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” Romney told a crowd of up to 30,000.
Exhaustion began to show on both candidates this past weekend as they keep up frenetic paces straight into Monday, when each performs another multi-state criss-cross that would make any frequent flyer proud.
The two candidates are effectively tied in national polls of the popular vote but Obama appears to have a stronger claim to the battleground states, and if the polls are accurate, seems to be in position to win re-election.u00a0
Redskins loss could be good omen for Romney
The Washington Redskins loss on Sunday could be a good omen for Mitt Romney. The so-called Redskins rule is pretty simple: If the Redskins win their last home game before the election, the party that won the previous presidential election will win again on Election Day. If the Redskins lose, then the other party is victorious. Romney would be the victor on Tuesday if the “Redskins rule” proves true in 2012.
99-yr-old US woman to vote for the first time
A 99-yr-old Florida woman has lived through 24 presidential elections, but chose this year’s contest to cast her first ballot. Rosie Lewis, of Fort Myers, Florida who received her ballot in the mail, got some help from a family friend to register and credits the election of US President Obama in 2008 with inspiring her to cast her first vote. “I said I’m going to vote if the Lord spares my life this time,” said Lewis. “I made up my mind to vote.” “She completely understands what she just did,” said her grandson, Nelson Lewis. “My grandmother never forgets anything.” Rosie Lewis was seven-years-old when the 19th Amendment passed, which gave women the right to vote. Lewis was in her 50s by the time Jim Crow laws were abolished.
169 mn The number of US voters that will go to polls in a $6-billion electionu00a0
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