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Campaigns Launch 11th-Hour Offensive

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The Associated Press

Published: November 3, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Barack Obama and John McCain uncorked massive get-out-the-vote operations in more than a dozen battleground states Sunday, with millions of telephone calls, mailings and door-knockings in a frenzied, fitting climax to a record-shattering $1 billion campaign.

Together, they'll spend about $8 per presidential vote.

With just two days to go, most national polls show Obama ahead of McCain. State surveys suggest the Democrat's path to the requisite 270 electoral votes - and perhaps far beyond - is much easier to navigate than McCain's.

Polls show the six closest states are Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio. All were won by Bush and made competitive by Obama's record-shattering fundraising.

The campaigns also are running aggressive ground games elsewhere, including Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia.

All that's left now for the candidates is to make sure people vote Tuesday - if they haven't already.

Indeed, Election Day is becoming a misnomer. About 27 million absentee and early votes were cast in 30 states as of Saturday night, more than ever. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in pre-Election Day voting in key states.

That has Democrats - and even some Republicans - privately questioning whether McCain can overtake Obama, even if GOP loyalists turn out in droves on Tuesday. Obama may already have too big of a head start in critical states such as Nevada and Iowa, which Bush won four years ago.

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