Clinton, Cheney are weapons for other side

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- The Republican Party on Sunday launched robocalls to millions of voters in hotly contested states, playing audio of Hillary Clinton in the primary election portraying her then-opponent Barack Obama as too inexperienced to run against John McCain.

Obama, meanwhile, unveiled a 30-second television ad comparing his own backing from billionaire investor Warren Buffett and retired Gen. Colin Powell to McCain's weekend endorsement by unpopular Vice President Dick Cheney.

As both campaigns sought to energize voters with two days remaining in the presidential contest, McCain was fighting for a comeback Sunday in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Florida, while Obama spent the day in battleground Ohio.

The two campaigns' moods were markedly different.

McCain and his team were defiant. In Wallingford, outside Philadelphia, the sound system played the theme from "Rocky" as McCain took to the stage in a high school gymnasium to address a crowd of 2,000.

"Let me give you a little straight talk about the state of the race today," McCain told the crowd. "There's just two days left, we're a couple of points behind in Pennsylvania. The pundits have written us off, just like they've done before. My friends, the Mac is back."

McCain also scheduled an evening town hall meeting in New Hampshire, where he's long had a strong network of support but where he now trails Obama by 10.7 percentage points, according to an average of statewide polls calculated by RealClearPolitics.com. "We wouldn't go to New Hampshire unless we thought it was winnable," McCain senior adviser Mark Salter said.

Obama and his surrogates exuded confidence.

"Two days," Obama told 60,000 supporters in Columbus, where he began the day, before a scheduled evening appearance in Cleveland with singer Bruce Springsteen and a night rally in Cincinnati. While Obama implored supporters to vote, saying, "Don't think for a minute that power will concede without a fight," he also said, "This is our time. We've got a righteous wind at our backs."

In Florida, at a rally with Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Sen. Bill Nelson said that if turnout is high, "Tuesday night I suspect we're going to be singing 'Happy Days are Here Again.' "

The robocall by the Republican National Committee and approved by the McCain campaign, plays audio of Clinton minimizing Obama's experience and the significance of a 2002 speech he gave opposing the invasion of Iraq. Since summer, however, she has campaigned on behalf of Obama across the country.

In Columbus, the Obama crowd booed at the mention of Cheney's name. Obama noted that Cheney said he was "delighted" to endorse McCain, and, alluding to Cheney's trademark grimace, said, "You've never seen Dick Cheney delighted before, but he is" as the crowd laughed. "That's kind of hard to picture."

The presidential rivals each had a busy final day of campaigning planned for today.

McCain's schedule was loaded with a seven-stop blitz across the country. Obama planned a final three-stop swing today up the East Coast in GOP states he hopes to convert, including a 5:30 p.m. stop in Charlotte.