Presidential candidates make final push before election day

Last Updated: Friday, October 31, 2008 | 8:05 PM ET

CBC News

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to be holding a solid lead over John McCain heading into the final weekend before election day, but the Arizona senator vows he will stage a comeback.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain shakes hands with supporters at the end of a campaign stop in Steubenville, Ohio, on Friday. (Stephan Savoia/Associated Press)

Taking an average of polls from media outlets and polling companies, RealClearPolitics website says Obama has nearly a six per cent lead over McCain.

The results vary, with Fox News saying the split between the two is three per cent, a Gallup poll giving the Illinois senator a five per cent advantage over McCain, Reuters/C-SPAN- Zogby pegging Obama's lead at seven per cent, while a CBS News/New York Times poll shows Obama in the lead by 11 per cent.

Despite the different results, all show Obama ahead. Obama also is leading in the so-called battleground states, including Florida and Ohio.

McCain said Friday he is not deterred by the polls.

The Arizona senator spent a second straight day campaigning in Ohio, which included a pit-stop in Columbus where he was joined by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I know a winning campaign when I see one," McCain said. "We're a couple of points back. Arnold said it best. The Mac is back. We need a new direction and we have to fight for it."

Schwarzenegger told the enthusiastic crowd that Obama's four years as an Illinois senator paled in comparison to the 5½ years McCain spent in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp.

"John McCain has served his country longer in a PoW camp than his opponent has served in the United States Senate," the former film star said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I only play an action hero in my movies. But John McCain is a real action hero," he said.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, however, Schwarzenegger admitted McCain faced major challenges.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

“I know it is going to be a very tough uphill battle for him," he said.

McCain is scheduled to head to Virginia for the weekend with a stop in New York for an appearance on Saturday Night Live. He will later head west.

Meanwhile, Obama called up some star power of his own as former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore campaigned across parts of Florida on his behalf Friday.

It was the first time Gore has campaigned for Obama since he endorsed him in June, and appeared at the party convention in August.

"The choice is between change or more of the same," Gore told a rally in West Palm beach.

For his part, Obama was campaigning across the Midwest Friday, with his first stop in Des Moines, Iowa, the site of his first win over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.

"The people of Iowa I will always be grateful to you," Obama said. "What you started here in Iowa has swept the country."

Bolstered by polls and flush with cash, Obama's campaign said they will spend money to resume advertising in the Republican states Georgia and North Dakota.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe also told the Associated Press that the campaign would begin airing ads in McCain's home state, which he represented for 26 years.

Plouffe said the race has tightened in those three states, which Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry won in 2004, but that Obama felt confident about keeping all of them.

He noted Obama was also running strong in several states, including Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Virginia, that helped push President George W. Bush to victory that year.

Just days before the Nov. 4 vote, both candidates were hammering on familiar themes Friday.

"We're going to fight it out on the economic grounds," McCain told ABC's Good Morning America.

"Senator Obama's economic policy is from the far left of American politics and ours is in the centre," McCain said. "He wants to raise people's taxes — that's clear."

In Iowa, Obama warned his supporters to expect to see from the McCain camp "more of the slash and burn, say-anything, do-anything politics, throw everything up against the refrigerator and see if anything sticks, a message that's designed to divide and distract; to tear us apart instead of bringing us together."