CLEVELAND, Ohio: President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney criss-crossed America on Sunday, appealing for votes in a two-day final dash for the US election win that both sides claim is within their grasp.
Romney’s run includes a surprise foray into Pennsylvania, a Democratic-leaning state that Republican strategists say is breaking his way. Obama advisers, however, dismiss the thrust as a sign of desperation.
After his first event of the day in Des Moines, Iowa, Romney flew to Cleveland, Ohio, firing up the crowd with loaded questions about Obama policy — all met, by design, with shouts of “No” from the assembled party faithful.
“If the president were re-elected, he would…” Romney began later in his stump speech only to be interrupted by another huge “Nooooo!” in support. “It’s possible, but not likely,” replied Romney in a rare, unscripted moment.
Democrats said they were confident of Obama’s small but steady lead in the key swing states that are likely to decide the election, but acknowledged that everything now depends on getting the vote out on November 6.
“Ultimately, it’s up to you. You have the power,” Obama said at rally in Concord, New Hampshire. “You will be shaping the decisions for this country for decades to come right now, in the next two days.”
 Earlier Romney, on his last stop in Iowa before the elections, implored supporters: “I need Iowa, I need Iowa, I need Iowa so we can win the White House and take back America.”
Romney will also be in Florida and Virginia on Sunday as he and Obama burn up jet fuel hopping between the battleground states that will decide who has the White House for the next four years.
Obama flew to New Hampshire to reprise a buddy act from the night before with Bill Clinton, which saw the popular former president place his economic legacy on the younger man’s shoulders.
On a grueling swing that will end in Wisconsin in the early hours of Tuesday, Obama will also travel to Florida, Colorado and Ohio on Sunday.
Campaign aides pointed at early voting advantages in states such as Ohio and Florida as evidence that Obama is close to sealing the deal in his quest to become only the second Democrat since World War II to get a second term.
“Early vote’s gone very well for us. We think we’re closing with strong momentum,” Obama advisor David Plouffe told ABC.
 But as the race boils down to a handful of votes in key areas both sides are trumpeting their organizational skills and get-out-the-vote drive as decisive.
 “Number one, their ground game is not superior,” Romney aide Ed Gillespie told CNN. “And, number two, I think those undecided voters are going to turn out, and they’re going to break pretty strongly against the president.”
Romney was spending precious time in Pennsylvania because the momentum was shifting in his favor even in states with bedrock Democratic constituencies, Gillespie said.
But Obama’s team said Romney’s raid was an acknowledgement that he can no longer put together the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election in the real swing states.
“Listen, this is a desperate ploy at the end of a campaign,” said Plouffe on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I think a lot of this is a smokescreen, to try and mask the fact that in the places that will decide this election from an Electoral College standpoint — Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin — it’s going to be close, but they are definitely in a weak position heading into election day.”
Pennsylvania has been in Obama’s column for months, with the latest Real Clear Politics average of polls showing the incumbent up 4.1 percentage points in a state he won handily, by more than 10 percent, in 2008.
Romney was spending precious time in Pennsylvania because the momentum was shifting in his favor even in states with bedrock Democratic constituencies, another aide, Kevin Madden, told journalists en route to the Ohio event.
“This is actually the perfect time because you’re 48 hours out from people making a decision,” Madden said.
But Obama’s team said Romney’s raid was an acknowledgement that he can no longer put together the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election in the real swing states.
 “Listen, this is a desperate ploy at the end of a campaign,” said Plouffe on ABC’s “This Week.”
“A lot of this is a smokescreen, to try and mask the fact that in the places that will decide this election from an Electoral College standpoint — Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin — it’s going to be close, but they are definitely in a weak position heading into election day.”
Pennsylvania has been in Obama’s column for months, with the latest Real Clear Politics average of polls showing the incumbent up 4.1 percentage points in a state he won handily, by more than 10 percent, in 2008.
A valuable character witness for the White House incumbent, former president Clinton will headline four rallies for Obama on Monday in Pennsylvania, to counter Romney’s late push there.
With two days to go in a race that has turned on Obama’s economic record and Romney’s past as a venture capitalist and the question of whether he is ready to lead, the candidates are closely matched.
They are effectively tied in national polls of the popular vote but Obama appears to be in a stronger position in the battleground states, and if the polls are accurate, seems to be in position to win re-election.
 The latest ABC News/Washington Post survey showed the race for the White House tied, with both Obama and Romney receiving 48-percent support among likely voters.
Opinion polls in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy have shown Obama blunting Romney’s momentum if not regaining some of his own.
“The hurricane is what broke Romney’s momentum,” former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, a leading Republican, told CNN. “I don’t think there’s any question about it.”
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