Obama In Chicago To Await US Election Result

By Daniel Robison

U.S. President Barack Obama is in his home town of Chicago, Illinois to await the results of the presidential election. In closing rallies in battleground states, Obama cast the election as a choice between starkly different visions of the future.

Obama spoke at rallies in Wisconsin, Ohio and finally Iowa, where a political primary victory in 2008 helped propel him to the Democratic presidential nomination.

At each stop, he urged voters to show up at the polls to ensure victory over Republican candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday. In Des Moines, Iowa, he urged voters to help him finish what he started when he won the presidency four years before.

“Tomorrow from the granite of New Hampshire, to the Rockies of Colorado, from the coast lines of Florida, to Virginia’s rolling hills, from the valleys of Ohio, to these Iowa fields, we will keep America moving forward,” he said.

In about a dozen media interviews before Election Day, Obama and his wife Michelle stressed the importance of voter turnout to ensure his re-election for a second term in the White House.

Final Washington Post/ABC and Reuters/IPSOS polling showed Obama with a two to three point lead. Gallup had Mr. Romney ahead by one point. All results were within the statistical margin of error.

Obama officials said early voting figures favored their candidate. The Romney campaign cited internal polling showing their candidate leading in key states.

In Ohio, which could end up determining the election result, Obama reiterated his determination to help the middle class, and said Mitt Romney offers a return to policies favoring the rich that were tried but failed in the past.

“He is trying to re-package the old ideas that don’t work and offer them up as change,” he said. “He is trying to pretend that somehow these old ideas that did not work are new and will work this time. But here’s the thing Ohio, we know what change looks like, and what he is selling ain’t it.”

Vice President Joseph Biden, and Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate, Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, addressed supporters in Virginia and Colorado.

“You know we don’t have to settle for four more years like these last four years, and you know that in one day we can elect Mitt Romney the next president of the United States, and get our country back on track,” said Ryan.

“The American people have a decision to make. We can continue to move forward or we can go back to the very politics that got us into this mess in the first place,” said Biden.

On his final day of campaigning, President Obama had help from rock and roll icon Bruce Springsteen, who flew with him on Air Force One and performed at campaign rallies.

First lady Michelle Obama introduced Obama at the final pre-election rally in Iowa.

“Tomorrow we get the chance to finish what we started here in Iowa,” she said.

The Obama campaign announced that Obama will spend part of Election Day playing pickup basketball with friends, close advisers and campaign staff. The Obamas will have dinner at their home in the Hyde Park section of Chicago.

Later, they will be joined by Vice President Biden and his family, and supporters at an election night watch party at Chicago’s huge McCormick Place convention center.

At some point, when results are known, President Obama will address supporters.