Kerry's last day: Sen John Kerry dashed across four critical states yesterday, starting at St John's church in Orlando - where the practising Roman Catholic marked All Saints Day - and was to wind up about 21 hours later in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
At an airport rally before leaving Florida, where the disputed 2000 presidential election was decided, Mr Kerry urged Americans to go the polls today, especially the thousands of newly-registered voters.
"So are you ready to take this thing and finish it off and get the job done?" the Massachusetts senator asked supporters. "This is not a day or a moment for a long speech. You know why you're here and you know the job we have to get done in the last hours."
But he also framed the very different choice voters face: four more years of the same "failed policies" or a fresh start.
"This is the choice, this is the moment of accountability for America. It's a moment where the world is watching what you're going to do. All of the hopes and dreams of our country are on the line today," Mr Kerry said.
Trying to to convince Americans he could handle the job of commander-in-chief, Mr Kerry slammed Mr Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney in a television interview for portraying him as weak-kneed and not tough enough to fight an aggressive war on terror.
He used a well-reported incident from his Vietnam War experience to take a jab at both men for not serving in the military.
"When people run around saying things like that you'd better be pretty suspicious about them," Mr Kerry said on CBS television. "It's what you do that makes a difference. When I turned my boat in Vietnam into an ambush . . . I didn't see George Bush or Dick Cheney at my side."
In a last-minute push for votes, Mr Kerry was criss-crossing Ohio and making a lightning strike into Michigan with a rally in Detroit. His aim was to get vital newspaper and television coverage in the states where he is facing his fiercest battle with Bush for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
"The events that we're now doing are unlike the last week when we were really into doing a lot of big, crowd-building," senior adviser Mr Mike McCurry said.
Mr McCurry said the campaign was confident of victory based on an "assessment of many things, the public polls, the internal polls, the reports that we're getting from our state directors on the ground, and their assessment of the turnout and mobilisation efforts".