Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told a boisterous crowd in a Democratic suburb of Cleveland Monday that “victory is coming.”

The Alaska governor opened a grueling final day of the presidential campaign with an upbeat rally in Lakewood, the biggest Democratic stronghold in Ohio, a swing state whose 20 electoral votes are crucial to Republican John McCain’s campaign.

Polls show Ohio is too close to call with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama carrying a slight lead or running neck and neck with McCain.
 
Although Obama-Biden signs far outnumber those for McCain-Palin in Lakewood, Palin drew a noisy crowd that waved red pompoms during her appearance at the bandstand in Lakewood Park.

“This is the right place to be for us to kick off this final day of campaigning,” Palin said. “You can just feel it here in Ohio. Victory is coming. We can do this; we can win Ohio.”

“Do you share our commitment and can we count on you tomorrow Ohio?” she asked.

The crowd responded with a “We will win!” chant.

The Lakewood appearance was the first of six rallies that Palin was to lead in five states on the day before Election Day.

In Ohio where an Associated Press-GfK survey last week showed nine in 10 likely voters fear for the economy, Palin concentrated on economic issues. She called Obama’s tax plan “phony” and questioned whether he would confine tax increases to the higher-income levels he has promised as a way to finance a middle class tax cut.

“Now is not the time to experiment with socialism,” Palin said. “Our opponent’s plan is just for bigger government.”

Palin emphasized the GOP ticket’s small government approach. She promised that McCain would balance the budget in four years and lower taxes for every American and business.
   
“We’ll impose a spending freeze to cover all but the most vital functions of government,” Palin said. “Now is the worst possible time to even think of raising taxes on you and our small businesses,” she said.
 
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Palin misrepresented Obama’s tax plan.

“Gov. Palin is lying about Sen. Obama’s plan to give the middle class a tax cut because she knows John McCain hasn’t told the American people a single major thing he’d do differently than George Bush when it comes to the economy,” Vietor said in an e-mail.
 
Obama’s plan calls for a tax increase on working families earning more than $250,000 a year to finance a tax cut for the 95 percent of workers and families earning less than $200,000 annually.

Meanwhile, Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden made a last-minute pitch for swing-state Missouri on Monday, vowing that he and Barack Obama would “re-establish the middle class” by focusing on job creation and helping homeowners facing foreclosure.

“For too many families who are working hard, playing by the rules … people can see it slipping from their grasp,” Biden told a crowd of about 1,500 at the Longview Community College Recreation Center south of Kansas City. “We are on the cusp of a new brand of leadership.”

On the eve of the election, Biden highlighted the nation’s financial crisis and said Obama would offer a three-month moratorium for homeowners facing foreclosure. He also jabbed Republican Sen. John McCain, saying there was “literally not one fundamental economic difference between John McCain and George Bush.”

He later repeated a sarcastic barb about the Republican ticket of McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“Hey, maverick. Hey, maverick,” Biden said to roars of laughter. “I mean, give me a break.

“I don’t think they’re mavericks. I think they’re sidekicks.”

Biden got perhaps the loudest response when he banged his fists on the podium in declaring that Obama would end the war in Iraq.

“End it, we will,” he said. “We will end it responsibly, but end it we will.”
  
Monday’s political schedule across the state underscores how important Missouri and its 11 electoral votes are to both parties.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was scheduled to appear at a midday rally in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, while Palin addressed voters in Jefferson City.

Democrats have focused much of their firepower on big-city suburbs, areas that analysts see as key to overcoming McCain’s perceived grip on rural Missouri.

LEAVITTSBURG, Ohio – Police in Ohio say a teenager was wounded in the arm over a campaign sign.

They say the 17-year-old and another teen were trying to take a John McCain sign out of a man’s yard. They say the homeowner fired at the teen with a .22-caliber rifle.

Warren Township police say the 50-year-old homeowner (Kenneth Rowles) told officers he got the gun to fire warning shots, not hurt anyone. The two shots hit the van the teens were riding in.

Police say the victim and his cousin admitted stealing signs at that house and elsewhere. No charges were filed against the teens.

The homeowner has pleaded not guilty to felonious assault. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 4, Election Day.

CHICAGO – Looking ahead to closing his case against John McCain in Ohio, Barack Obama argues that voters there have a chance to reject “politics that would divide a nation just to win an election.”

Fresh off rollicking rallies in Colorado, Obama faced a more sober reality on Monday in Ohio. Polls show a tight race in the state that sealed President Bush’s 2004 re-election.
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Obama is giving what his campaign calls the “closing argument” of his presidential bid in Ohio, where he already lost once this year, to fellow Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“In one week, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope,” Obama said in prepared comments released in advance early Monday by his campaign.

The longest presidential contest in history is down to just eight days, with Obama and Republican McCain dueling for the electoral riches of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

For his part, McCain’s core theme was that electing Obama would give Democrats, who are on track to increase their congressional majorities, complete control of the government. Such a situation
would inevitably lead to more government and higher taxes that would deepen the nation’s economic woes, McCain and other Republican candidates were arguing in a message aimed squarely at independent and undecided voters that could decide the election’s outcome.

“My opponent is out there working out the details with Speaker Pelosi and (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid, their plans to raise your taxes, increase spending and concede defeat in Iraq,” said McCain. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

Democrats, meanwhile, argued that a one-party government could set the economy on the right track faster than one split between warring Republicans and Democrats.

“If the American people want to get something done, that’s not a bad idea.” said Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said on CBS’ “Early Show.”Divided government gives everybody the ability to not do something and then point the finger at the other guy.”

Obama’s struggles to connect with white working-class voters in Ohio helped fuel his defeat in that state during the primaries. Economic concerns are even worse now with the country in a financial crisis, and perhaps headed for deep recession, with growing numbers of people out of work.

And as Ohio goes, often goes history. No Democratic contender for the presidency has won without Ohio’s support in nearly 50 years – since John F. Kennedy in 1960.
 
So it is a strategic choice that Obama will deliver his next speech in the industrial northeast Ohio city of Canton. His campaign touts it as his closing case, although there will presumably be other final arguments during the final, frenetic days of the campaign.
 
Obama is sticking to his theme of linking McCain to President Bush, the unpopular leader of his party.

McCain’s campaign says that’s false.

Unlike in other key states, Obama has struggled to sustain a big lead in Ohio despite pounding McCain with TV ads and building a strong get-out-the-vote operation.

Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes, never really recovered from the post-Sept. 11 recession. Long a manufacturing bastion, Ohio has lost almost 250,000 factory jobs since 2000. The unemployment rate is at 7.2 percent, well above the national average of 6.1 percent.

Pennsylvania is the only state that Democrat John Kerry won four years ago that both candidates are expected to visit before Election Day. With 21 electoral votes, it hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1988, but McCain is working the state aggressively.

Public polls show Obama comfortably leading in Pennsylvania, though private Republican surveys show a closer race.

“That’s what North Carolina has become in this presidential election — a key Ohio-like, swing state that could determine the election.”

Sen. John McCain has increased his chances in one of Florida’s most competitive counties, but the big battleground of Ohio may be leaning toward Barack Obama, according to a new Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll.

TOLEDO, Ohio – John McCain and Barack Obama are running close in Ohio, a state President Bush won the last two elections, and Andy Mance may help explain why the Republicans are having trouble pulling away as the 2008 campaign reaches its conclusion.

The Toledo businessman, a self-professed GOP moderate, says he likes McCain but has trouble with the “Joe the Plumber” story the GOP nominee’s been telling nonstop for the better part of a week. Joe the Plumber himself undercut the tale over the weekend, when Joe Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio, revealed he made far less than $250,000 a year. A week earlier, he complained to Obama that the Democrat’s plan to increase taxes for people earning more than that could keep him from buying the two-person plumbing company where he works.

“The $250,000 remark, I don’t make $250,000,” Wurzelbacher said Sunday on “Fox and Friends.” “You know, I’ve never even come close to that, nor will I. I mean, I’d have to work, I don’t know, 10 years to get that kind of money, maybe more.”

Regardless, the symbolism is lost on Mance, who attended a rally McCain held Sunday just nine miles from Wurzelbacher’s home. Both Mance and Wurzelbacher live in a battleground state with 20 electoral votes.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered Ohio’s top elections official to set up a system by Friday to verify the eligibility of new voters and make the information available to the state’s 88 county election boards.

The full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a lower court ruling that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must use other government records to check thousands of new voters for registration fraud.

A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit had disagreed last week, but the full court’s ruling overturns that decision.

Ohio Republicans had sued Brunner, a Democrat. Her spokesman had no immediate comment Tuesday.

About 666,000 Ohioans have registered to vote since January, with many doing so before the contested Democratic primary election last March between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Since then, Ohio Republicans have filed a series of challenges to the registrations and Brunner’s administration of election rules. They have helped voters file lawsuits against local boards of election over registration rules, absentee ballot requests and a weeklong period that allowed registration and voting on the same day.
 
Brunner previously said there was no way to set up the system with such speed.

Last week, a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit had sided with Brunner, but after hearing an appeal the full panel sided with the GOP and U.S. District Judge George C. Smith in Columbus. Smith had ordered Brunner to develop a way to verify voter registration information and make it available to local election boards.

Brunner argued that it would take two to three days to create the necessary computer programs, and said nothing in the federal Help America Vote Act required her to do what the district court ordered.

Tuesday’s order directs Brunner to verify new registrations by comparing that information with data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration.

Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett accused Brunner of pursuing a partisan agenda and said “her delay in providing this matching system leaves little time for election officials to act on questionable registrations.”
 
Bennett said Brunner was destroying the public’s trust in Ohio’s elections system.
 
“Her shameful actions to disenfranchise Republican absentee voters, block the transparency of early voting and refuse the proper verification of newly registered voters have rightfully damaged her credibility as a nonpartisan election administrator,” he said.

Polling in the state shows Obama, now the Democratic presidential nominee, slightly ahead of Republican challenger John McCain. Both campaigns have worked hard in the state, which has 20 electoral votes and gave President Bush a second term in 2004.

THE POLL: Washington Post-ABC News poll of 772 likely Ohio voters (20 electoral votes).

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama, 51 percent; John McCain, 45 percent.

OF INTEREST: Obama’s lead revolves around the worry about the economy. Those who say it is the biggest issue favor Obama 61-34 percent; those who say the biggest issue is something else back McCain 57-38 percent. Obama is generating more enthusiasm among his voters: 58 percent say they are very enthusiastic while 30 percent say the same about McCain. Women are solidly backing Obama 56-42 percent; in 2004 they split evenly between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Only about half of all Ohio voters think Obama is experienced enough to be president.

DETAILS: The poll was conducted by telephone Oct. 3-5 with 772 likely voters out of a total sample of 1,010 adults in Ohio. The sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
 
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THE POLL: A WISH-TV Indiana Poll of likely Indiana voters (11 electoral votes).

THE NUMBERS: John McCain 46 percent, Barack Obama 46 percent.

OF INTEREST: Most recent statewide polls have shown a tight race in Indiana, where a Democratic presidential candidate last won in 1964. A similar poll of the state by the same company released last week found McCain with 46 percent support to Obama’s 45 percent.
 
DETAILS: Conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 3 by telephone of 800 likely voters by Maryland-based Research 2000. Margin of error plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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THE POLL: CNN/Time magazine/Opinion Research Corp. of 859 likely voters in Wisconsin (10 electoral votes).

THE NUMBERS: Obama 51, McCain 46.

OF INTEREST: The poll is in line with other recent surveys showing Obama with a small lead in Wisconsin, but the race remains close. CNN says the numbers are enough to put Wisconsin in the “leaning toward Obama” category instead of a toss-up.
 
DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 3-6 by telephone. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

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WASHINGTON – Barack Obama has vaulted ahead of John McCain in polls from three crucial battlegrounds states, just five weeks before the election.

The latest Quinnipiac (QUIN’-ah-pee-ack) University surveys in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania show Obama’s support has jumped to 50 percent or above.

Pollsters attribute the improvement to public approval of his debate performance last Friday. Other factors include antipathy for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and heightened confidence in Obama’s ability to handle the current economic crisis.

The new surveys show Obama leading McCain in Florida 51 to 43 percent, in Ohio 50 to 42 percent and in Pennsylvania 54 to 39 percent.

Since 1960, no president has been elected without winning two of those three states.