As the presidential race winds down into the final weekend, both tickets are pressing ahead at full steam.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama are pulling out new tactics to try and gain an edge in key swing states heading into the week of the election.
Targeting the youth vote, Obama made an appearance Wednesday night on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. He discussed the airtime he purchased to deliver his political message and called it a “Barack Obama infomercial.” He joked that he hoped people weren’t annoyed by his “infomercial” like traditional late night TV ads. The democratic senator then later secured the endorsement of conservative comedian talk show host Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report.
After his interview with Stewart, Obama joined former democratic champion Bill Clinton Wednesday in Kissimmee, Fla. to send a joint message to undecided voters in the traditional key swing state.
“The presidential campaign is the greatest job interview in the world. And on Tuesday, you get to make the hire,” Clinton said.
Clinton spent most of the speech harping on Republicans mishandling of the economy and that senator Obama was the man to lead the country out of the economic crisis.
“This is not a close question. If you make the decision based on who can best get us out of the ditch,” Clinton said. “I think it’s clear the next president should be, and with your help will be, Senator Barack Obama.”
The two appeared on stage, together for the first time at the rally. After they joined forces on stage it was reveled that former President Clinton was an advisor to Obama on the financial crisis and he and his wife Hillary Clinton would be available for council should the senator win the White House.
While Obama was targeting the swing voters in the sunshine state, Sarah Palin was launching the “Meet the Parents” tour in southern Nevada. The McCain-Palin campaign is bringing Vice Presidential candidate Palin’s parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, along with her husband’s parents Jim and Faye Palin, to Nevada to help the campaign effort. The family will be going door to door in neighborhoods in the southern part of the state to help swing the state in McCain’s favor.
Both McCain and Obama are expected to close the race out in Ohio, the most hotly contested state of the race. Many of the polls in the state put the candidates both within the margin of error. With no clear leader it will come down to the final days of campaigning. The Republican party has never won the White House without winning Ohio, and the key contested state has gone to the winner of the last four presidential elections.
