Obama, Romney in final push for votes

WASHINGTON - The Associated Press

US President Obama (R) looks back at Vice President Biden during a rally in Ohio. The state is considered key to deciding the fate of the elections. REUTERS photo

U.S. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney focused on their closing appeal to voters as they entered the final stretch of an excruciatingly close race for the White House.

Obama stressed that voters simply cannot trust Romney and the Republican nominee warned of bleak times ahead should the president be re-elected.

With polls showing the race virtually tied nationally and in some of the key states, both candidates claimed a growing edge as they sought to sway the small pool of undecided voters while imploring their millions of supporters to vote, particularly in key battleground states such as Ohio and Iowa were early voting is already under way.

Obama was planning to cover 8,500 kilometers yesterday in the busiest single day of his re-election bid. He was traveling from Washington to Iowa, Colorado, California and Nevada, and then overnight to Florida. It was the first time Obama was spending the night on Air Force One for a domestic trip but far from unprecedented by incumbents scrambling to keep their job.

Obama was scheduled to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and calling some voters from the plane.

Romney, too, was picking up the pace. He was set to campaign in Reno, Nevada, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before a three-stop campaign in Ohio today.

Setting up for a frenetic finish, both campaigns sought to show they had enthusiasm and organization on their side even as polls showed an up-for-grabs race.

Obama’s campaign insisted that the president was holding on to a slight lead in most of the nine battleground states that do not reliably vote Republican or Democratic and will decide the Nov. 6 election. The U.S. president is not chosen according to the popular nationwide vote but in state-by-state contests.