Barack Obama will deliver the final campaign speeches of his political career today with a last-minute pitch to swing-state voters – who will give him four more years in the White House or dispatch him into early retirement.
On the last day of stumping for what is expected to be one of the closest presidential elections in history, Mr Obama will appear in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa, the key battleground states with the potential to tip the race either for or against the Democratic incumbent, who cannot stand again in four years’ time under electoral rules.
Mitt Romney, his challenger, also has a furious election-eve itinerary with visits scheduled to Florida, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire.
Under the US system, the winner is not determined by the nationwide popular vote, but in state-by-state contests, making “battleground” states that are neither consistently Republican nor Democratic extremely important in such a tight race. Romney and Obama are actually competing to win at least 270 electoral votes.
To avoid the indignity of being a one-term president, Mr Obama must persuade those voters who are still undecided that his economic policies offer the best path to recovery.
Mr Romney, meanwhile, has promised the creation of 12 million jobs soon after taking office, but, in the minds of Democratic Party supporters at least, he has not explained how he would achieve it.
He has also pledged to scrap Obamacare, the president’s health reforms, which were confirmed only this summer by the US Supreme Court’s rejection of legal challenges.
In Florida, the largest and most valuable of the swing states and with the nation’s highest percentage of senior citizen voters, any tinkering with social security and healthcare is watched closely. Such is the state’s importance it was a must-visit for both candidates during their furious final weekend on the campaign trail.
The Republicans have gained substantial ground in Florida since late September, when Mr Obama led the Real Clear Politics tracking poll by more than 3 per cent. As of yesterday, Mr Romney held a 1.7 per cent advantage in the same poll.
Nationally, the picture is even less clear. Several of the respected tracking polls project the race as a tie.