Obama and Romney race for the finish as election day nears – US politics live
LIVEMitt Romney and Barack Obama hold four rallies each in seven swing states with two days remaining until election
Even the end of daylight saving – summer time – this morning gets used as political ammunition by Joe Biden:
Folks I want to remind you, this is the end of daylight savings time tonight. It’s Mitt Romney’s favorite time of year because he gets to turn the clock back. He wants to turn that clock back so desperately. This time he can really do it tonight.
60 years of presidential campaign ads in four minutes
This is perhaps the most brilliant thing I've seen in the entire election cycle: edited highlights of presidential television advertising for the past 60 years.
For politics geeks, there's a treasure trove in there, including glimpses of the infamous 2004 "Bears in the woods" ad for the Bush/Cheney campaign, and the 1988 "Revolving door" ad for George HW Bush, Lee Atwater's finest hour. Plus "In your heart, you know he's right," the 1964 ad for insane madman loser Barry Goldwater. "In your guts, you know he's nuts," was the LBJ campaign response.
This is the work of noted YouTube wizard Hugh Atkin, the finest export from Australia since Vegemite.
Ohio, Ohio, Ohio: the Columbus Dispatch has a new poll that shows it remains Obama's by a wafer-thin margin:
The final Dispatch Poll shows Obama leading 50% to 48% in the Buckeye State. However, that 2-point edge is within the survey’s margin of sampling error, plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Here's a key statistic from the poll:
One key to Obama’s lead: He is winning by more than 2-to-1 among the 11% of Ohio voters who say they didn’t cast a ballot in the 2010 governor’s race, which Republican John Kasich won by two points.
Amazing fact from the Dispatch piece: "Both candidates and both running mates are here today, and three of the four are coming back on Monday. That will make 83 visits by presidential candidates to Ohio this year, a record at least in modern history."
On CNN just now, Candy Crowley has given Romney surrogate Rob Portman of Ohio a grilling over the Romney campaign's patently false ad claims about Jeep production being moved to China. He weakly defends the ad on the grounds that it's true in some alternative universe but that's not even the worst attempt of the day. Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor went with the "Ad? What ad?" strategy:
Good one Eric.
Florida Democrats sue to extend early voting
The Guardian's Chris McGreal reports that Florida Democrats have filed a lawsuit to extend early voting days after some people waited in line for more than 7 hours to get to the ballot box:
The last voters finally left some Miami polling places after 1.30am on Sunday as officials allowed those already in line at 7pm on Saturday to vote. The Republican-controlled Florida legislature cut back early voting days from 14 to 8. That included scrapping voting today, the final Sunday before election day, when large numbers of African Americans traditionally went to the polls after church. The Democrats say the move was a brazen attempt to discourage their supporters from voting. The US justice department is monitoring the conduct of the vote in Florida to determine if the long lines are a deliberate obstacle to voting and therefore in breach of the 1965 voting rights act.
Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic party, had this to say in a statement:
Voting is a fundamental right, and we all have an interest in assuring that all Americans have effective opportunities to vote. Florida’s Republican state legislature has already reduced the number of days to early vote by six days. Because of Governor Scott’s refusal to follow precedent and extend early voting hours in the face of unprecedented voter turnout in South Florida, we are requesting in federal court that more Floridians have a meaningful chance to early vote.
'The Beatles and the Stones sharing a double bill'
The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland was in Bristow, Virginia, last night for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's joint appearance there:
For Democratic activists, this was the Beatles and the Stones sharing a double bill. Saturday night was bitterly cold in Bristow, Virginia, but that didn’t stop thousands coming to a rally addressed by the two best orators their party has produced since Robert Kennedy. “It’s once in a lifetime,” Jennifer Rodriguez, a nurse who’d made the journey from Richmond, told me.Of course Bill Clinton has to play the support act these days, but he does so with huge heart. He bounded on stage in brown leather bomber jacket, wrapped up far less warmly than his audience, and delivered what was largely a reprise of his Charlotte showstopper, when he wowed the Democratic convention with a masterclass in substantive rhetoric, patiently laying out the policy-based reasons why the American people should re-elect their president. His voice was so hoarse, you wondered if it would give out. But the crowd stayed with him, lapping up the unarguable simplicity of lines such as “’We’re all in this together’ is better than ‘you’re on your own.’” And he can still work a rally like the most seasoned Catskills comic. Of Mitt Romney’s multiple positions on the auto-bailout, Clinton said: "He’s tied himself up in so many knots, he could be hired as the chief contortionist of Cirque du Soleil.”There were two moments of almost imperceptible tension. One came early, when Clinton confessed himself “more excited” about supporting Barack Obama “even than I was four years ago.” It brought a fleeting reminder that in early 2008, Bill Clinton was devoting all his red-faced energy to dismissing the Obama candidacy as a “fairytale.” Later the former president spoke of the ailment known as Romnesia, the habit of forgetting the Republican’s past record. I’m pretty sure I heard him add, as an aside, that “His opponent may even have got a bit of it.” That sounded like a reference to Obama himself, an apparent dig at the president’s failure, especially in the first debate, to nail Romney’s many contradictions.If that's what it was, few noticed it. Instead, the crowd cheered for Obama when he come on to high-five and hug his predecessor - and cheered louder as he delivered a strong, confident and, at times, stirring performance. He lavished praise on Clinton, saying his team “calls him the Secretary of Explaining Stuff”. He added that “the only person working harder than he is is Hillary.”When the speeches were over, the two men worked the ropeline together to the sound of Clinton’s old anthem, Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. Yesterday the Clintons were Obama’s foes. Today they are two of his most useful friends.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at their joint appearance in Bristow, Virginia, on Saturday night. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters
With Mitt Romney and Barack Obama each making appearances in four swing states, the 2012 presidential election has shrunk to a handful of battlegrounds with just two full days of campaigning until polls open on Tuesday.
Obama has stops in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio and Colorado, while Romney has events in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia – with the last minute schedule changes showing where candidates hope or fear their bid for the White House needs most support.
Both candidates stop off in Ohio, which is central to both sides' plans for victory. Romney's addition of a rally in the suburbs of Philadelphia is a signal either of panic or ambition to win Pennsylvania, where Republican presidential hopes have gone to die in campaigns past.
Similarly, Obama's decision to add a last minute stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida may be a last throw of the dice or a brilliant strategic move – but we won't know either way until late on Tuesday night.
The Guardian has correspondents on the ground at the key events and we'll be covering the day's action here live throughout.
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