BARACK OBAMA and John McCain took their battle to Florida yesterday as two new polls showed the state in a dead heat and the Democrat prepared to make his closing argument in an unprecedented, 30-minute, prime-time television broadcast.
Mr Obama spent more than $3 million on the extended advertisement, which was due to be broadcast on all but one of the biggest networks and on other channels with large black and Hispanic audiences.
Aides said the broadcast, which would include a live element from Florida, offered Mr Obama a chance to break through the "clutter" of campaign coverage to address voters directly ahead of next Tuesday's election. "He'll be able to give greater details about where he wants to lead," senior adviser David Axelrod said.
Mr Obama was due to appear in Orlando late last night with former president Bill Clinton in their first joint appearance of the campaign and he also planned to appear by satellite on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. Mr McCain, who is trailing in national polls and in most battleground states, yesterday stepped up his attack on the Democrat's past association with political radicals, including former urban guerrilla William Ayers.
The Republican also criticised the Los Angeles Timesfor refusing to release a video of Mr Obama proposing a toast to Rashid Khalidi, an academic who once acted as a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
"The Los Angeles Timesrefuses to make that videotape public," he said. "I'm not in the business of talking about media bias, but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet? I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different." In an effort to appeal to Florida's large Cuban-American community, Mr McCain suggested Cuban leader Fidel Castro had made clear his preference for a Democratic victory next week.
"I think we all know that the Cuban-American vote can be vital to whether I win Florida or not," McCain said.
"So I do want to say again that we will never waver in our mission to restore freedom and democracy."
Mr Obama warned supporters against losing momentum in the final days of the race and poured scorn on Mr McCain's latest attacks on him.
"I'm sorry to see my opponent sink so low. Lately, he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class," he said. "By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten."