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FLORIDA - MR BARACK Obama stood on the threshold of history on Monday as polls gave the Democrat a sharp edge over Mr John McCain on the last day of campaigning for the most dramatic presidential vote in a generation.
Obama leads in 6 of 8 key states
WASHINGTON - DEMOCRAT Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in six of eight key battleground states one day before the US presidential election, including the big prizes of Ohio and Florida, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Monday.
Mr Obama holds a 7-point edge over Mr McCain among likely US voters in a separate Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby national tracking poll, up 1 percentage point from Sunday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. -- REUTERS
But Mr McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, was adamant he would confound the pollsters to stage a shock comeback and wrench victory from the African-American Obama's grasp on Tuesday.
The 47-year-old Democrat stressed the historic nature of his quest to be America's first black president, striking an optimistic tone as fresh polls gave him a wide lead and heaped further pressure on Mr McCain.
'This is a defining moment in our history,' Mr Obama wrote in an article published Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
'Tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation's next great chapter... If you give me your vote, we won't just win this election - together, we will change this country and change the world.'
Mr McCain was defiant. 'My opponent is measuring the drapes at the White House,' he said, as he wrapped up a frenzied day of campaigning with a midnight rally in Miami.
'They may not know it, but the Mac is back! And we're going to win this election,' he added, to deafening cheers.
The Republican was to launch a frenetic dash through at least seven states on the marathon campaign's final day. Obama was to blitz through Florida, North Carolina and Virginia bidding to storm Republican bastions and turn them over to his side.
On stage in Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday evening after a rousing set from rocker Bruce Springsteen, Mr Obama confessed his delight to be rejoined on the trail by his wife Michelle and two young daughters.
'Everything looks a little better', he told 80,000 supporters at a rally in drenching rain in Ohio on Sunday. 'Everybody's got a smile on their face,' he said.
'You start thinking that maybe we might be able to win an election on November 4.'
Mr Obama lacerated Mr McCain on the stricken US economy and said his rival's policies would extend President George W. Bush's legacy of financial crisis and 'war without end' in Iraq, while neglecting resurgent militancy in Afghanistan.
Mr McCain also attacked his rival on the economy, in his own Wall Street Journal article. 'Senator Obama wants to raise taxes and restrict trade', he charged. 'The last time America did that in a bad economy it led to the Great Depression.'
The final pre-election poll of Gallup-USA Today published on Monday gave Mr Obama a yawning lead of 11 points - 55 per cent to 44 for Mr McCain.
'It would take an improbable last-minute shift in voter preferences, or a huge Republican advantage in election day turnout, for McCain to improve enough upon his predicted share of the vote in Gallup's traditional likely voter model to overcome his deficit to Obama,' the polling organisation said.
Polls see Obama ahead
A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll put Mr Obama ahead on 51 per cent to 43. CNN's latest poll Sunday had Mr Obama with a 53-46 per cent edge, a Washington Post-ABC News poll gave him 54 per cent to 43, and Rasmussen said he was at 51 per cent to McCain's 46.
Mr Obama leads also in the battleground states where the election will be won and lost, including in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that have not backed a Democratic hopeful in decades.
A separate poll by The Washington Post and ABC said that in six states considered to be up for grabs, support was roughly split with 51 per cent support for Mr Obama and 47 for Mr McCain.
Mr McCain's whistlestop tour on Monday was expected to include campaign stops in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, New Mexico and Nevada before the Republican was to head home to Arizona.
The Arizona senator, 72, said the polls had been wrong before, and would be proven wrong again come Tuesday.
But the battle has narrowed down to states that have been reliably Republican in recent elections, as Mr Obama's deep-pocketed campaign expands the electoral map to places where the Democrats have not won in years.
If he wins every state Mr John Kerry took in 2004, the Illinois senator has multiple routes that could take him to the world's most powerful address at Washington's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr McCain has no room for error.
Victories in Colorado and Nevada out west, on top of his lock on Iowa in the US heartland, would enable Obama to clinch the White House without even winning the states that decided the last two elections: Ohio and Florida.
Each candidate is battling to reach the magic number of 270 votes in the Electoral College that formally selects the next president. States are apportioned electoral votes based on their population. -- AFP
Obama leads in 6 of 8 key states
WASHINGTON - DEMOCRAT Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in six of eight key battleground states one day before the US presidential election, including the big prizes of Ohio and Florida, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Monday.
Mr Obama holds a 7-point edge over Mr McCain among likely US voters in a separate Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby national tracking poll, up 1 percentage point from Sunday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. -- REUTERS
But Mr McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, was adamant he would confound the pollsters to stage a shock comeback and wrench victory from the African-American Obama's grasp on Tuesday.
The 47-year-old Democrat stressed the historic nature of his quest to be America's first black president, striking an optimistic tone as fresh polls gave him a wide lead and heaped further pressure on Mr McCain.
'This is a defining moment in our history,' Mr Obama wrote in an article published Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
'Tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation's next great chapter... If you give me your vote, we won't just win this election - together, we will change this country and change the world.'
Mr McCain was defiant. 'My opponent is measuring the drapes at the White House,' he said, as he wrapped up a frenzied day of campaigning with a midnight rally in Miami.
'They may not know it, but the Mac is back! And we're going to win this election,' he added, to deafening cheers.
The Republican was to launch a frenetic dash through at least seven states on the marathon campaign's final day. Obama was to blitz through Florida, North Carolina and Virginia bidding to storm Republican bastions and turn them over to his side.
On stage in Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday evening after a rousing set from rocker Bruce Springsteen, Mr Obama confessed his delight to be rejoined on the trail by his wife Michelle and two young daughters.
'Everything looks a little better', he told 80,000 supporters at a rally in drenching rain in Ohio on Sunday. 'Everybody's got a smile on their face,' he said.
'You start thinking that maybe we might be able to win an election on November 4.'
Mr Obama lacerated Mr McCain on the stricken US economy and said his rival's policies would extend President George W. Bush's legacy of financial crisis and 'war without end' in Iraq, while neglecting resurgent militancy in Afghanistan.
Mr McCain also attacked his rival on the economy, in his own Wall Street Journal article. 'Senator Obama wants to raise taxes and restrict trade', he charged. 'The last time America did that in a bad economy it led to the Great Depression.'
The final pre-election poll of Gallup-USA Today published on Monday gave Mr Obama a yawning lead of 11 points - 55 per cent to 44 for Mr McCain.
'It would take an improbable last-minute shift in voter preferences, or a huge Republican advantage in election day turnout, for McCain to improve enough upon his predicted share of the vote in Gallup's traditional likely voter model to overcome his deficit to Obama,' the polling organisation said.
Polls see Obama ahead
A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll put Mr Obama ahead on 51 per cent to 43. CNN's latest poll Sunday had Mr Obama with a 53-46 per cent edge, a Washington Post-ABC News poll gave him 54 per cent to 43, and Rasmussen said he was at 51 per cent to McCain's 46.
Mr Obama leads also in the battleground states where the election will be won and lost, including in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that have not backed a Democratic hopeful in decades.
A separate poll by The Washington Post and ABC said that in six states considered to be up for grabs, support was roughly split with 51 per cent support for Mr Obama and 47 for Mr McCain.
Mr McCain's whistlestop tour on Monday was expected to include campaign stops in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, New Mexico and Nevada before the Republican was to head home to Arizona.
The Arizona senator, 72, said the polls had been wrong before, and would be proven wrong again come Tuesday.
But the battle has narrowed down to states that have been reliably Republican in recent elections, as Mr Obama's deep-pocketed campaign expands the electoral map to places where the Democrats have not won in years.
If he wins every state Mr John Kerry took in 2004, the Illinois senator has multiple routes that could take him to the world's most powerful address at Washington's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr McCain has no room for error.
Victories in Colorado and Nevada out west, on top of his lock on Iowa in the US heartland, would enable Obama to clinch the White House without even winning the states that decided the last two elections: Ohio and Florida.
Each candidate is battling to reach the magic number of 270 votes in the Electoral College that formally selects the next president. States are apportioned electoral votes based on their population. -- AFP
