The two men who would be president presented their closing arguments to the American people on Saturday, as they embarked on a frantic three-day dash for the finishing line in what is poised to be one of the closest contests ever seen in the United States.
After months of speeches, dozens of diner visits, hundreds of thousands of commercials and billions of dollars spent by the campaigns and outside groups, the race is still too close to call.
Mitt Romney promised Americans that under his leadership the country would rediscover its greatness, after languishing under Barack Obama for four years.
Under a slogan of “Real Change from Day One” – a deliberate dig at the president’s winning mantra from 2008 - the Republican contender said that his rival’s “big government” policies had failed.
“If there is anybody who fears the American dream is fading away, I have a message for you: America is about to come roaring back,” he said at his first rally of the day in New Hampshire, one of the closest swing states.
“President Obama is offering excuses, I am offering a plan. He is asking Americans to settle [for what they have got]. But Americans don’t settle, we dream, we aspire and we achieve great things.”
Mr Romney is now the candidate offering a sense of hope, prosperity and unity, while the president is visibly on the defensive.
“I will not just represent one party, I will represent one nation,” Mr Romney said.
The challenger’s supporters and aides are convinced momentum is on their side. They point to previous elections decided by a surge on the last weekend, such as 1980, when Ronald Reagan overtook Jimmy Carter at the final hurdle.
“People then were not happy with the economy. Democrats either stayed at home or said ‘to hell with it, I will vote for the other guy’,” said Andrew Smith, a political scientist and pollster at the University of New Hampshire.
“That election is the most similar dynamic we have to now.”
The crowd of several thousand that turned out in temperatures close to freezing in Portsmouth for Mr Romney suggested that the pattern could be repeated.
As Mr Romney and his wife Ann took to the stage, they were greeted by chants of “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” and “We love you Ann!”
Visiting the Granite State was a return to the scene of the climb for Mr Romney. It was the place where his bid to be his party's nominee was effectively launched by a primary victory in January.
“New Hampshire got me the Republican nomination, and New Hampshire is going to get me the White House,” he said to roars.
The difference between Romney then and now is marked. He is more confident, less awkward and altogether clearer about his message.
Supporters – who used to file away semi-satisfied at the conclusion of his speeches – afterwards thronged to shake his hand at a crush barriers. Behind, his plane – emblazoned with logo “Believe in America” – sat waiting to speed him to his next destination, Iowa.
His flight path could well have encountered Mr Obama’s yesterday, as he too crisscrossed the nation, visiting Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia.
Appearing in Mentor, Ohio, Mr Obama said the election was a choice "about two different visions for America: the top down vision that crashed the economy, or a future built on a strong and growing middle class".
The national polls show the two candidates separated by only a few decimal points. But Mr Obama leads in more of the closest swing states, which could prove crucial in the state-by-state electoral college system.
On the back foot ever since his dismal first debate performance, the president was boosted last week by simply doing his job efficiently during Hurricane Sandy, and reminding voters that he is their leader. The late endorsement of Michael Bloomberg, the independent mayor of New York, won’t have done any harm.
But he has been forced to draw heavily at the 11th hour on the celebrity support that has been a feature of his ascendance.
Katy Perry, Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder are among those who will appear and perform with the president in the final few days.
Mr Romney has been blessed only by a warm-up routine from Kid Rock, best known beyond American shores for his brief marriage to Pamela Anderson.
For Romney supporters however, the president’s Hollywood allure is part of the problem. With the economy making a painfully slow recovery, the election in their minds has come back to where it started: how to get America back on its feet.
Star appeal is irrelevant and they see Mr Romney, a phenomenally successful former venture capitalist, as the man best qualified to do that.
“I voted for Obama four years ago. I thought it was the right thing to do, but I regret it now,” said Norman Le Moine, waiting for Mr Romney to speak.
“I believed in hope and change and thought the country needed different leadership. He was very charismatic and inspirational. But he has moved the country too far to the left. We are $16 trillion in debt, too many people are out of work - and America is better than that.”
The owner of a business selling health products online, Mr Le Moine, 59, admitted that he is actually better off now than four years ago.
“But listen, a lot of my friends aren’t doing so well. I put my heart and soul into my business – like Mitt Romney – that’s why I think he is the guy to win. He has the right experience, the right leadership skills.”
Over in southwestern Ohio, Kerrie Logan Hollihan, an author of historical books for children, agrees that in tough economic times the White House needs a “capable administrator” in residence.
Having voted for both Democrats and Republicans, she is just the sort of floating voter the Obama camp craves as it tries to cling on to Ohio, one of the largest swing states.
But she looked at how Mr Romney turned around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, his achievements in business, and bipartisan style as governor of Massachusetts, a solid Democratic state, and decided to plump for him.
“I haven’t found Obama convincing as a leader,” she said. “He came from nowhere and surprised a lot of people, and convinced a lot of people, especially the young.
“But he is like a lot of ambitious and talented people in this world who convince other people to put them in a leadership position, and when they get there, there is this sense of ‘now what’?”
Democrats in Ohio and other swing states are acutely aware that with Mr Romney breathing down the president’s neck, getting out the vote on the day will be crucial.
Morris Reid, a former official in Bill Clinton’s White House who hails from the state, said: “It will come down to turnout and ground game. If we get African Americans to turn out we can get an extra two to three points in Ohio.”
A misleading TV ad by the Romney campaign which claimed local Chrysler plants were preparing to ship jobs to China has angered labour voters and women with blue collar husbands, he said. That could make the crucial difference at this late stage, by encouraging extra numbers to show up at polling stations on Tuesday.
“I believe we will win, but this is close, very close. It makes me nervous. I have never been so nervous about a race,” said Mr Reid.
They are both Rothschild's tools. Their owner's have more control if the race is close, hence the mamufactured drama. My pick? America loses.
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