Obama and McCain in final push

Barack Obama and John McCain on Monday night wound up their presidential campaigns in a whirlwind of rallies and speeches even as new data underlined the scale of the economic crisis awaiting the winner.

In a reflection of the growing confidence of his supporters, Mr Obama was set to conclude his bid to be the first black occupant of the White House at a giant rally in Virginia, traditionally a Republican stronghold that has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964

“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,” he was expected to tell the crowds at Manassas, a rapidly growing suburb in northern Virginia.

But whether he fulfils the predictions of the opinion polls which give him an average seven-percentage point lead, or Mr McCain, the Republican Arizona senator, manages a last-minute upset, either man will face the bleakest economic outlook for the country in a generation.

Manufacturing activity plunged to its lowest level since 1982 last month, the Institute for Supply Management reported on Monday, providing further evidence of the deepening of US economic turmoil. The scale of the downturn was starkly illustrated by the October car sales figures which hit their lowest level for 25 years. GM’s car and light-truck sales fell by 45 per cent and Ford’s by 30 per cent.

Mr Obama on Monday focused almost wholly on America’s worsening economy, seeking to tar Mr McCain with the policy failings of George W. Bush, the outgoing president

Monday’s manufacturing figures – the ISM index fell from a level of 43.5 in September to 38.9 in October – disappointed economists who had been expecting a smaller drop to 41.5. The components of the index were extra-ordinarily weak, showing production of goods, as well as orders, declining sharply amid slowing global demand.

Meanwhile, Mr Obama’s last day of campaigning was interrupted by news that his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died in Hawaii. The Illinois senator last month broke his schedule to visit the 86-year-old, who helped raise him, after learning she was losing a battle with cancer. In a rare display of emotion, Mr Obama wiped away a tear as he referred to her death at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In last-minute electioneering on Monday, the candidates spread out to battleground states from Pennsylvania to New Mexico and from Florida to Virginia.

“I’ve been travelling too much,” said a visibly tired Mr Obama, after addressing his audience at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida, as “Ohio”.

In an even more frantic schedule, Mr McCain was visiting seven states as he shuttled between Moon Township, Pennsylvania, and Prescott, Arizona, where he was winding up his campaign at 2am today.

“My friends, I’ve been fighting for this country since I was 17 years old, and I have the scars to prove it,” the Vietnam war veteran told a rally in Tampa, Florida. “If I’m elected president, I will fight to shake up Washington and take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last.”

With campaigning close to an end, the two sides switched to getting out the vote on Tuesday. A massive operation by the Obama team looked like outstripping the historically better organised Republicans, at least in terms of size. The Democrats have fielded an army of 1.5m volunteers and almost 800 offices across the 50 states.

Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr McCain, rejected widespread perceptions that the Republican “ground game” was weaker than in previous years, saying the McCain campaign had made 60 percent more phone calls and other “voter connections” than the Bush campaign in 2004.

A series of opinion polls put Mr Obama’s support at more than 50 per cent nationally, and indicated that he held a strong lead among the almost 30 per cent of respondents who had already voted.