Obama, Romney pick up where they left off

DOSWELL, Va. -- Five days before the election, Republican challenger Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama -- shifting back to full campaign mode -- vied forcefully for the mantle of change yesterday in a country thirsting for it after a painful recession and uneven recovery. Both pressed intense closing arguments in their close race for the White House.

A three-day lull that followed superstorm Sandy ended abruptly, with the president campaigning briskly across three battleground states and Romney hitting three stops in a fourth.

The Republican also attacked with a tough new Spanish-language television ad in Florida showing Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chávez, and Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, saying they would vote for Obama.

In Doswell, Va., Romney said, "This is a time for greatness. This is a time for big change, for real change."

Meanwhile, one day after touring storm-battered New Jersey with Republican Gov. Chris Christie, Obama walked off Air Force One in Green Bay, Wis., wearing a leather bomber jacket bearing the presidential seal and promptly lit into Romney.

"What the governor is offering sure ain't change. Giving more power back to the biggest banks isn't change. Leaving millions without health insurance isn't change. Another $5 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy isn't change. Turning Medicare into a voucher is change, but we don't want that change," he said.

As early voting topped 20 million ballots, the ever-present polls continued to chart a close race for the popular vote, and a series of tight battleground surveys suggested neither man could be confident of success in the competition for the 270 electoral votes that will decide the winner.

Their two parties are also battling for control of the Senate in a series of 10 or more competitive campaigns. The possibility of a 50-50 tie loomed, or even a more unsettled outcome if former Gov. Angus King of Maine, an independent, wins a three-way race and becomes majority-maker.

Obama's aides left North Carolina off the president's itinerary in the campaign's final days, a decision that Republicans trumpeted as a virtual concession of the state.

Yet Romney's team omitted Ohio and Wisconsin from a list of battlegrounds where they claimed narrow advantage. The challenger and his running mate, Paul Ryan, are set for separate weekend stops in Pennsylvania, a state long viewed as safe for the president. Republicans said the decision to campaign there reflected late momentum, while Democrats said it was mere desperation.