With the election in sight and the economy reeling, Barack Obama and John McCain fought over causes, cures and the final votes that will make one of them president. Obama tied McCain to President Bush and said Americans are paying a steep price for the partnership, while the Republican linked his rival to Big Oil and record profits.
Aiming to seal the victory and become the nation’s first black president, Obama raced into a day that took him from Florida to Virginia to Missouri, all traditionally Republican territory.
McCain rolled by bus through battleground Ohio five days before the election, struggling to make up ground in a state that has voted with the winner in every presidential election for two decades.
By all available evidence, on the Thursday before Election Day the race was Obama’s to lose. National polls showed him ahead, he was rated the favorite in a half-dozen states that sided with Bush in 2004, and surveys showed close races in three more.
Both campaigns invested heavily in turning out early voters.
