US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have been taking their final shots at each other and barnstorming battleground states.
Today wraps up a US presidential campaign in which Senator Obama is leading for the Democrats but Senator McCain for the Republicans hopes to pull off a historic upset.
After campaigning for almost two years, the candidates are running on adrenaline and buoyed by big crowds, preparing to end up in their home states - Sen Obama in Illinois, Sen McCain in Arizona - to await Americans' judgement tomorrow.
Huge challenges await the winner, including restoring growth to the sagging US economy, fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, getting a handle on a budget deficit running close to €400bn and restoring the lustre of the world's lone superpower.
Interest in the election to determine a successor to unpopular US President George W Bush is high. Millions of US citizens have already voted early and election officials are bracing for long lines at polling stations.
A record turnout, easily eclipsing the 2004 vote total of more than 121m, is possible.
The candidates began the last day of campaign 2008 in Florida, scene of the famous 2000 recount battle that Mr Bush won and a state Sen McCain needs to stave off defeat.
One day away from change - Obama
Illinois Senator Obama, 47, who would be the US's first black president, rode his message as an anti-Bush change agent and is leading in national opinion polls and in many swing states.
'After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one day away from change in America,' Sen Obama told supporters in Jacksonville, Florida.
Sen McCain, faced with the herculean task of extending Republican rule of the White House for a third straight term with the current incumbent's unpopularity draped on his shoulders, is hoping for a miracle finish.
'The pundits have written us off just like they've done before and my opponent is measuring the drapes in the White House,' Sen McCain told a spirited rally in Tampa, Florida. 'The pundits may not know it and the Democrats may not know it, but 'the Mac' is back. We're going to win this election.'
Sen McCain, 72, who would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term, accused Sen Obama of wanting to raise taxes to pursue liberal policies and fought back against his attempts to tie him to Mr Bush, saying he was not Mr Bush.
'If Sen Obama wanted to run against George Bush he should've run four years ago,' he said.
The two-year campaign, which has been estimated to cost €1.5bn, will extend even into Election Day. Sen McCain will make stops in Colorado and New Mexico after voting in Arizona.
McCain accuses Obama on economy
Sen Obama will make a final plea for votes tomorrow in Indianapolis. Usually a solid Republican state, Indiana is flirting with Sen Obama this year.
US citizens will vote in what amounts to 51 separate elections in each state and the District of Columbia. Each state is allocated electoral votes based on the size of its representation in Congress. Whoever gets 270 electoral votes wins the White House.
While Sen Obama has many combinations of states that he can use to get to 270, Sen McCain's path is narrow. He has been mostly racing around states Bush won in 2004 trying to defend them while hoping to nab traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania.
In tomorrow's Congressional elections, Democrats appear poised to make gains in their majorities in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate. All 435 House seats are at stake and 35 of the Senate's 100 seats are up for election.
This morning Sen Obama stressed the historic nature of his quest to be first African-American president of the US, 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 today 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 also attacked his rival on the economy, in his own Wall Street Journal article. 'Sen 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 today gives Mr Obama a lead of 11 points – 55% to 44% for Mr McCain.
A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll put Mr Obama ahead on 51% to 43%. CNN's latest poll yesterday had Mr Obama with a 53% to 46% percent edge, a Washington Post-ABC News poll gave him 54% to 43%, and Rasmussen said he was at 51% to Mr 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.
For more on the US Election go to RTÉ.ie/uselection
