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Road to White House :
Final campaign day dawns for Obama, Romney
After a gruelling 18-month battle, the final US campaign day arrived
yesterday for President Barack Obama and rival Mitt Romney, two men on a
collision course for the world’s top job. 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.
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.
Yesterday marks the final, last-ditch 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 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.
AFP |
