McCain struggles to gain ground on Obama in Ohio
By DOUGLAS BIRCH
Associated Press
October 31, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the presidential race in its final days, Republican John McCain campaigned across Ohio, struggling to gain ground against Democrat Barack Obama in a state that the Republican must win to have a chance of capturing the White House.
With just five days to go before the election, Obama sought to expand his lead in the polls by campaigning against McCain in states that have voted Republican in recent elections, including Florida, Virginia and Missouri.
McCain meanwhile spent a day riding a campaign bus through a single, critical swing state, Ohio, because if he loses there, he will have almost no chance of getting the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the presidency.
McCain says he relishes the role of underdog, and has pulled off come-from-behind wins in the past. He spent part of Thursday in an Ohio town called Defiance, and during the day blasted the media's skeptical assessment of his chances in Tuesday's election.
"The pundits have written us off, just as they've done several times before," he said. "We're a few points down, but we're coming back."
The latest national poll released Thursday, the CBS-NY Times national poll, put Obama and Joe Biden at 52 percent, McCain and Sarah Palin at 39 percent. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
Obama, who spent millions blanketing the television networks with a paid political appeal Wednesday night, continued to hammer home his message that the U.S. needs to change course.
"When the polls close on Tuesday, you don't want to say to yourself, 'Here's something I didn't do, here's an argument I didn't make, here's a hand I didn't shake,'" Obama said in an interview with ABC television, broadcast Thursday.
By most independent evidence, on the Thursday before Election Day the race was Obama's to lose.
National polls showed the Democrat with a substantial lead nationwide, and he was rated the favorite in a half-dozen states that sided with President Bush in 2004. Surveys showed him in close races in three more.
Two new polls released Thursday showed the candidates tied in the once reliably Republican state of Indiana.
Obama, who is seeking to become the nation's first black president, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars more than McCain.
And he has used that advantage to draw votes in traditionally Republican areas, forcing McCain to spend precious time and money defending his home turf.
Obama's campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about possibly serving as White House chief of staff, Democratic campaign officials said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
After spending part of Thursday in Florida and Virginia, Obama was headed for a rally in Columbia, Missouri as part of his political endgame.
Missouri, in the Midwest, is considered a political bellwether for the rest of the country. Voters there have voted for the winner in every U.S. presidential contest since 1956.
>> Continued -- Page 1 2
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
