US Democratic Senator Barack Obama stood on the threshold of history yesterday as polls gave him a solid lead over Republican Senator John McCain on the last day of campaigning for the most dramatic US presidential vote in a generation.
But McCain, who has no room for error in the tense battle for a handful of toss-up states, vowed to confound the pollsters and wrench victory from the African-American Obama’s grasp today.
The 47-year-old Democrat stressed the historic nature of his quest to be the US’ first black president, striking an optimistic tone as fresh polls gave him a wide lead and heaped further pressure on McCain.
“This is a defining moment in our history,” Obama wrote in an article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.
“Tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation’s next great chapter … If you give me your vote, we won’t just win this election — together, we will change this country and change the world,” he wrote.
McCain was defiant.
“My opponent is measuring the drapes at the White House,” he said, as he wrapped up a frenzied day of campaigning with a midnight rally in Miami.
“The Mac is back! And we’re going to win this election,” he said to deafening cheers.
BLITZ
The Republican was to dash through at least seven states on the marathon campaign’s final day. Obama was to blitz through Florida, North Carolina and Virginia bidding to storm Republican bastions and turn them over to his side.
Rallying supporters in Ohio on Sunday, Obama said his rival’s policies would extend US President George W. Bush’s legacy of financial crisis and “war without end” in Iraq.
McCain also attacked his rival on the economy, in his own Wall Street Journal article.
“Senator Obama wants to raise taxes and restrict trade,” he wrote. “The last time America did that in a bad economy it led to the Great Depression.”
The final pre-election poll of Gallup-USA Today published yesterday gave Obama a yawning lead of 11 points — 55 percent to 44 for McCain.
“It would take an improbable last-minute shift in voter preferences, or a huge Republican advantage in election day turnout, for McCain to improve enough upon his predicted share of the vote … to overcome his deficit to Obama,” the pollster said.
A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll put Obama ahead on 51 percent to 43. CNN’s latest poll on Sunday had Obama with a 53 to 46 percent edge.
BATTLEGROUND STATES
Obama leads also in the battleground states where the election will be won and lost, including in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that have not backed a Democratic hopeful in decades.
A separate poll by the Washington Post and ABC said that in six states considered to be up for grabs, support was roughly split with 51 percent support for Obama and 47 for McCain.
McCain’s whistlestop tour yesterday was expected to include campaign stops in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, New Mexico and Nevada before he was to head home to Arizona.
Also See: US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Journalists descend on US for election
Also See: US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Obama, McCain eye potential administration teams
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS