Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made their final cases to Americans on election eve on Monday, capping a grueling, negative, multi-billion dollar campaign and handing their fates to voters.
“It all comes down to you, it is out of my hands now, it is in yours,” a hoarse, moist-eyed Obama told a 20,000-strong crowd in Iowa, concluding his re-election bid in the state that nurtured his White House dream from 2007.
Romney put an exclamation mark on his campaign with his own, rowdy late night rally, in an indoor sports arena in New Hampshire.
“Tomorrow is a moment to look into the future and imagine what we can do, to put that past four years behind us and build a new future,” Romney said.
“Walk with me. Tomorrow, we begin a new tomorrow.”
The foes, drained by fatigue, had earlier charged through the swing states that will decide the race, taking final shots hours before polls open in an election that will decide whether Obama wins a second White House term.
“President Obama promised change, but he couldn’t deliver it,” Romney earlier told thousands of cheering supporters in the pivotal state of Ohio, who chanted “One More Day, One More Day!”
After his final rally, the Republican candidate was due to make several get-out-the vote stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania on election day.
Obama, barnstorming with rock legend Bruce Springsteen and rapper Jay-Z, pleaded with supporters in Madison, Wisconsin to stick with him in a final push to the finish, as polls showed him as a slight favorite on Tuesday.
“If you’re willing to work with me again, and knock on some doors with me, make some phone calls for me, turn out for me, we’ll win Wisconsin. We’ll win this election. We’ll finish what we started,” he said.
Obama, who also visited Ohio on the final day, is hoping to defy historic precedents suggesting that presidents who preside over shaky economies and high unemployment fail to win re-election.
In what was, win or lose, his last campaign rally, Obama was wistful and striking many of the emotional chords that resonated through his campaign in 2008 but have been absent this time, following his crisis-strewn presidency.
