McCain, Obama seek to turn out the vote

By Jeff Mason

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama sought to energize voter turnout on Saturday in the final, frenetic weekend of a long and grinding U.S. presidential election campaign.

McCain spent the day in Virginia and Pennsylvania looking to turn out the vote on Tuesday. Virginia normally votes Republican but appears to be siding with Obama, while McCain is trying to steal traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania from Obama.

Obama, enjoying a lead in national polls and in many battleground states where the election will be decided, sought a knockout punch in three states that went for President George W. Bush in 2004 -- Nevada, Colorado and Missouri.

Nowhere to be seen on the campaign trail was Bush himself. With a popularity rating below 30 percent, Bush was not asked to campaign for McCain. Obama has consistently sought to portray his opponent as a Bush clone.

The Obama camp gleefully pointed out that Vice President Dick Cheney had spoken warmly of McCain in Cheney's home state of Wyoming.

"I'd like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it. That endorsement didn't come easy," Obama said in Pueblo, Colorado. "Senator McCain had to vote with George Bush 90 percent of the time and agree with Dick Cheney to get it."

McCain, in Springfield, Virginia, ridiculed Obama for a line in his stump speech in which the Democrat says his victory in the party's primary had vindicated his faith in the American people.

"He said the other day that his primary victory vindicated his faith in America. My country has never had to prove anything to me, my friends. I've always had faith in America," McCain said. The Obama campaign called McCain's attack "pathetic."

Americans on Tuesday will vote in what amounts to 51 separate elections in each state and the District of Columbia. Each state has a number of electoral votes based on the size of its representation in Congress. Whichever candidate gets 270 electoral votes wins the White House.

They will choose between Illinois Sen. Obama, 47, who would be the country's first black president, and Arizona Sen. McCain, 72, the former Vietnam prisoner of war who would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term.

If current polling is accurate and stands up on Election Day, Obama will win, possibly by a comfortable margin.

SIGNS OF HOPE

But McCain and his aides see signs of hope from their own polling as well as some public opinion polls.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Saturday said Obama's lead over McCain dipped slightly to 5 points.

"There is no doubt that McCain made some gains," said pollster John Zogby. "It is enough to raise the question, is McCain making a move?"