BARACK OBAMA and John McCain have been criss-crossing the United States in a final push for votes as polls show the Democrat holding a commanding advantage ahead of tomorrow's presidential election.
Mr Obama's confidence showed as he spent the closing hours of the race campaigning exclusively in states won by President George Bush in 2004, appearing yesterday in Nevada, Colorado, Missouri and Ohio. He will make his final campaign stop later today in Virginia, which has not backed a Democrat in a presidential election since 1964.
A new
Washington Post/ABC News poll gives Mr Obama a nine-point lead nationally and puts him ahead in all the states John Kerry won in 2004 and in almost all the battleground states won by Mr Bush.
Mr Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe said yesterday that the Democrat was focusing on just 16 states and that he saw a number of possible paths to the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the election.
"All of the prime takeaway targets that we've been working on for so long we think are in good shape heading to the election. But obviously, we need great turnout on Tuesday," he told Fox News.
"And for us, the most important thing is we are seeing newly registered supporters of ours, younger voters, African American voters, Hispanic voters, which in many states are a base for us turning out at big levels."
None of the 160 national polls over the past six weeks has shown Mr McCain ahead but the race appears to be narrowing in some states, notably Florida and Virginia. Polling suggests, however, that for the Republican to win tomorrow, he would have to win almost all the undecided voters in key swing states and persuade a large number of voters to change their minds.
Mr McCain yesterday kept up an energetic campaign schedule, which included a rally in Pennsylvania, the only big state Mr Kerry won which the Republican is targeting.
"I've been in a lot of political campaigns and I can sense the enthusiasm in these last few days. We're going to win this race," Mr McCain said.
Almost one in four likely voters have already voted by absentee ballot or in person in states that allow early voting and polls suggest that most of those who voted early are Democrats. In Georgia and Florida, record numbers turned out at early voting centres, sometimes waiting up to 10 hours to cast their ballots.
According to a report released yesterday by American University's Centre for the Study of the American Electorate, an estimated 153.1 million citizens, or 73.5 per cent of the eligible population, have registered to vote, more than the previous record of 72.1 established in 1964.
Democrats believe that Mr Obama will benefit from a high turnout, which could be boosted by fine weather across most of the country, according to forecasts.
Despite the polls, Mr Obama yesterday again warned supporters against becoming complacent.
"Don't believe for a second this election is over. Don't think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in these last few days, because it does," he told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. "But I know this, Ohio, the time for change has come. We have a righteous wind at our back. And in these last couple of days, I need you to knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me," he said.
Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson said that Mr McCain could yet pull off an upset victory. "John's a closer. He always has been," Mr Thompson told NBC's
Meet the Press. "He often is given up for dead - literally and politically. People have been wrong about him before. I think the election has yet to be decided."