CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Less than 48 hours before polls open on Election Day, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan gave a firm warning to a group of evangelical Christians Sunday night: President Barack Obama’s policies jeopardize Judeo-Christian values. 

“And in these critical battleground states, it’s going to make the big difference as to whether or not people are worried about where America’s headed, worried about whether we’re going to reassert our Constitution, or whether or not we’re going to go down the path the president has put us on,” Ryan said speaking on a Faith and Freedom Coalition tele-townhall with thousands of voters across the country.  

He continued, “It’s a dangerous path, it’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, western-civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place.”

A Ryan campaign spokesman told NBC News about Ryan’s comments: "He was talking about issues like religious liberty and ObamaCare - topics he has mentioned frequently during the campaign." 

Mitt Romney has also shared similar comments about Judeo-Christian values, such as during his commencement address at Liberty University in May 2012.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is an influential evangelical grassroots organization headed by Ralph Reed. The tele-townhall tonight was only advised by the group and never by the Romney campaign. It was a call that had been re-scheduled at least once due to scheduling conflicts. Ryan fielded questions from several callers in between campaign rallies in Minnesota and Colorado. 

Asked by a caller from Florida about how his faith has helped him as Romney’s running mate, Ryan said it “sustains” and “humbles” him. 

“We [Ryan’s family] pray throughout the day. I keep a rosary in my pocket, whatever jacket I've got, and I'm given so many prayers from people,” the Wisconsin congressman said. “I'm one of those people who don't think you can separate your faith from your public life as an official from your private life. It informs you, it guides you, it makes you who you are, and it gives you great peace.  First prayer I say every morning is the Serenity prayer.” 

Ryan also noted he received an email from his pastor in Janesville, Wis. tonight with the words: “have no fear.” “And that's how the Lord sustains me. No fear,” Ryan added.

MORRISVILLE, PA -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney traveled here to Pennsylvania on Sunday for a trip that, in two days or so, would seem either prescient or desperate.

The GOP nominee made a late personal appeal for Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes before a crowd of over 25,000. Romney's stop here in suburban Philadelphia marked his first stop in Pennsylvania since late September, and coincided with a last-minute advertising blitz from his campaign, the Republican National Committee and a supportive super PAC.

"This audience and your voices are being heard all over the nation. They’re being heard in my heart," Romney said, taking the stage on this frosty night. "The people of America understand we’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win Pennsylvania.”

The Romney campaign contended the trip was indicative of surging momentum for the Republican nominee, who could expand his pathway to the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency by winning the Keystone State.

"This is one of those states that came into view right after the first debate," Romney adviser Kevin Madden told reporters traveling with the candidate on Sunday. "And as a result it just presented a great opportunity. So we've seen that state just get closer and closer and closer."

Democrats contend Romney's move is a bluff -- a signal that pathways through other battleground states have been foreclosed. Nonetheless, the Obama campaign did spend money on television ads in the state, and are sending high-profile surrogates to the state to campaign on Obama's behalf.

History nonetheless suggests Pennsylvania will be an uphill climb for Romney. The state has reliably supported the Democratic nominee for president in every election since 1988, and in 2008 Sen. John McCain, too, made a late effort in the state, only to lose it by 10 points on Election Day.

But Romney has some advantages here that make the state a tempting target so late in the game. In addition to GOP ad spending in the state, Republicans won two major statewide races here in 2010, electing Sen. Pat Toomey and Gov. Tom Corbett. The Romney campaign also boasts of a robust ground-game here, in part as a holdover of those successes.

Romney delivered his closing argument speech here with a few Pennsylvania flourishes, hitting President Obama for what he called his "war on coal," and name dropping Chris Christie, the popular governor-next-door to this Philadelphia suburb.

The event's one spoiler: the weather. With Romney more than an hour late thanks to a ground stop at the Philadelphia airport, some frustrated and frozen supporters streamed out of the event while Romney spoke, many having arrived as early as two o'clock in the afternoon to secure seats on the bleachers and beat the crowds who ultimately packed the venue.

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday predicted a decisive Electoral College victory for the Democratic presidential ticket, saying that the president's midwestern "firewall" will hold.

"I think that we're going to win.  I don't think it's going to be close in the Electoral College," said the vice president in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews after a rally outside Toledo.

"I think the firewall here of Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa -- I think it's going to hold firm," he said.

Biden's certainty  didn't extend to the two major battlegrounds of Virginia and florida, which public polling have shown to be trending slightly in the Republicans' favor. He told Matthews that Democrats have an "even chance" in those states after predicting wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Nevada and Iowa.

But even without the combined 42 electoral votes of the two Southern swing states, the Obama-Biden ticket could still win a decisive Electoral College victory if Democrats hold midwestern and western states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Colorado.

Biden was also upbeat about the possibilities for compromise in Congress after the election, despite his frequent lambasting of the Tea Party's influence in the United States House and Senate.

"We need leaders that can control their party," he said. "And I think you're going to see the fever break." 

Jason Reed / Reuters

President Barack Obama campaigns at McArthur High School in Hollywood, Fla. on Nov. 4, 2012.

With just two days until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney are running neck and neck nationally, according to the final national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll before the election.

Obama gets support from 48 percent of likely voters, while Romney gets 47 percent.

Read the full poll here (.pdf)

In the NBC/WSJ poll released two weeks ago, the two candidates were deadlocked at 47 percent each.

“This poll is reflecting a very, very close campaign nationally,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart.

“It’s a dead heat,” Hart adds. “This election is going to be decided by turnout, turnout, turnout.”

While both Obama and Romney are running virtually even in this national poll, a majority of surveys from the battleground states – especially in the crucial battlegrounds of Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin – show the president with a slight advantage.

Good news for Obama: Two-thirds approve of hurricane handling
The NBC/WSJ poll – conducted Nov. 1-3 – contains good news for both Obama and Romney in the final days of the campaign.

For Obama, 41 percent of likely voters say that what they have read, heard, and seen over the past couple of weeks have given them a  more favorable impression of president, compared to 40 percent who said it had given them a less favorable impression – which is up from his 38-to-43 percent score on this question two weeks ago.

Read our memo on our 'likely voter' methodology (.pdf)

Part of that more favorable impression is due to his handling of Hurricane Sandy, of which 67 percent of likely voters approve.

By comparison, 45 percent of voters say they have say they have a less favorable impression of Romney from what they have read, heard and seen over the past couple of weeks, versus 40 percent who have a more favorable view.

Yet two weeks ago – fresh off his debate performances – Romney’s score here was tied, 44 percent more favorable, and 44 percent less favorable.

Comparing 2012 to 2004
In addition, Obama’s numbers in this poll look almost identical to George W. Bush’s in the final NBC/WSJ before the 2004 presidential election, which Bush ended up winning 51 percent to 48 percent.

Obama’s approval rating among likely voters stands at 49 percent – exactly matching Bush’s 49 percent approval in the final 2004 NBC/WSJ poll.

Forty-two percent say the country is headed in the right direction, versus 41 percent who said the same thing in late Oct. 2004.

And the head-to-head score between Obama and Romney – 48 percent to 47 percent – is identical to what it was in the final NBC/WSJ poll before the 2004 election: Bush 48 percent, Democrat John Kerry 47 percent.

“The comparisons between 2004 and 2012 are haunting,” McInturff says.

Good news for Romney: Comfort level, the economy
The good news for Romney in this national poll is that 53 percent of likely voters are comfortable with the idea of him as president, which ties Obama’s percentage on this question (although 39 percent are “very comfortable” with Obama versus 26 percent who are “very comfortable” with Romney).

Also, Romney is ahead of Obama among independents, 47 percent to 40 percent.

And the former Massachusetts governor leads Obama by five points on which candidate is better prepared to create jobs and grow the economy, 47 percent to 42 percent.

However, a majority of voters in the survey – 52 percent – say the economy is recovering.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 of 1,475 likely voters (including 443 cell phone-only respondents), and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 2.55 percentage points.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Sundays in the fall mean football. And, on this final Sunday before Election Day, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan went tailgating in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

Ryan, in the shadow of Lambeau Field, chatted with friends, family, and voters just a couple hours before his beloved Green Bay Packers kicked off against their division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals.

Sporting a Packers jacket and tie, the seven-term Wisconsin congressman, joined by two of Mitt Romney’s sons, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson, even played a quick game of cornhole with his kids and a few Romney grandkids.

"You have to have your cheese on your head,” Ryan said to the kids while playing cornhole.

This is not Ryan’s first tailgate on the campaign trail. He has attended at least two others throughout the country.

"The only problem is that I don't have tickets for the game," Ryan, who owns a share of Packers stock, joked to a fan.

Sunday’s outing marked Ryan’s second time in the Lambeau Field vicinity since being tapped as Romney’s running mate on Aug. 11. He was last at the popular venue in early September when he taped a handful of television interviews.

The GOP ticket is still behind in the Badger State. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll from Oct. 18 shows President Obama ahead of Romney, 51 percent to 45 percent. The six-point lead is, however, in the poll's margin of error. Wisconsin will award 10 electoral votes.

The Fox Valley area, which Green Bay is part of, is the quintessential battleground region of Wisconsin, which could explain why Ryan visited the area again just two days before Election Day.

Ryan will head back to Wisconsin Monday night when he holds his final campaign rally before the Nov. 6 election in Milwaukee.

CONCORD, N.H. – Riding Saturday night’s momentum from their first appearance at a rally together, President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton took to the small Granite State capital to make their case for the former’s second term.

Introducing the president, Clinton reminded the crowd how good New Hampshire had been to him when he first ran for president, leaving unsaid that the state also voted for his wife Hillary in the 2008 Democratic primary.

“Twenty years and nine months ago, New Hampshire began the chance for me to become president,” Clinton told the 14,000 people gathered in a park near the statehouse here.

But, he added, he was much more enthusiastic about campaigning for Obama now than he was for himself.

“Maybe because I have done this work. Maybe because I know how hard it is,” he said.

And Clinton also played the role of aggressive surrogate for the more reserved president, reviving the “Romnesia” attack line that Obama had deployed in the weeks leading up to the tone-changing Hurricane Sandy.

“As President Obama has told us there’s this great public health epidemic, this virus, sweeping across America causing a condition known as Romnesia,” Clinton said, “and the virus is so rampant that anybody’s vulnerable to gettin’ a little of it.”

For his part, Obama sought to draw a parallel between Clinton’s economic policies, popular around the country in retrospect, and his own.

“Just as we did when Bill Clinton was president, we gotta ask the wealthiest to pay a little bit more so we can reduce the deficit and still invest in the things we need to grow,” he said.

And Obama also gave an unusually detailed plug for some of the state’s down-ballot candidates, a nod to the Democrats’ fight to regain the House, as well as add more governors to the party roster.

“If you want to break the gridlock in Congress, you’ll vote for leaders who feel the same way whether they’re Democrats or Republicans or independents – folks like John Lynch, folks like Jeanne Shaheen, you’ll vote for candidates like Annie Custer, Carol Shea-Porter. You’ll make Maggie Hassan the next governor of New Hampshire,” he said.

Amanda Henneberg, spokeswoman for GOP nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, responded to Obama in a written statement: "With no rationale for re-election, President Obama has resorted to false, discredited attacks and a cynical closing message urging voters to choose ‘revenge.’ The people of New Hampshire, along with the rest of America, will choose Governor Romney’s optimistic vision for our country’s future and will vote for real change so he can get our country back on the right track."

The president continued his frenetic campaign pace, hopping on a plane to Florida after his New Hampshire stop.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Returning for the final time to the state that launched the 2012 campaign so many months ago, Mitt Romney asked Iowans on Sunday morning to support him one last time, by casting their ballots for the "change" candidate on Tuesday.

"I need your vote, I need your work, I need your help. Walk with me. We’ll walk together. Let’s begin anew," Romney said in closing here, his voice showing strains from days of frenetic campaigning. "I need Iowa – I need Iowa so we can win the White House and take back America, keep it strong, make sure we always remain the hope of the earth. I’m counting on you!"

A crowd of more than 4,000 supporters turned out for Romney's Sunday morning Iowa finale, in which the GOP nominee delivered his now-familiar closing argument stump speech calling on undecided voters to "look beyond the speeches and the attacks and all the ads," and make their final choice based on records, and who they believed stood the best chance to enact "real change" in the next four years.

"Talk is cheap.  But a record is real and it’s earned with real effort," Romney said. "Change – you can’t measure change in speeches.  You measure change in achievements.”

Romney has looked to strike a hopeful, optimistic tone in the final days of a campaign, which Sunday's newest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows remains deadlocked nationally, with Obama claiming 48 percent of the vote to Romney's 47 percent. Romney advisers concede they're likely narrowly behind in Iowa based on early voting totals and internal polling, but remain confident Romney can win the state with a strong showing from Republican voters and independents on Election Day.

Attacks against the president, calibrated to appeal to those independent voters, remained in this final appearance. Romney criticized the president for asking supporters to vote based on revenge for the sixth-straight rally ("Voting is the best revenge," Obama said in Ohio on Friday; an off-the-cuff remark quickly grafted into Romney's stump speech), and during his introduction of Romney, Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad accused the president of betraying Iowans natural fiscal restraint.

"Iowans feel betrayed. Almost a sense of -- not only disappointed, but almost a sense of betrayal that our principles of sound budgeting and responsible government have been ignored by this administration for four straight years," Branstad said. "Iowa's message for Obama is: It's time for a change. It's time for you to go back to Chicago."

Surrogates for President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney projected outward confidence on Sunday in each candidate's ability to win on Election Day.

As the final NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll showed a close race nationally between the two candidates, their top supporters squabbled over who held the upper hand in critical battleground states.

"I'm very confident that, two days out from Election Day, the president's going to be re-elected on Tuesday night," said David Plouffe, a White House adviser who managed the president's 2008 campaign, on "Meet the Press."

There are seven states, worth 89 electoral votes, considered true "toss-up" states on NBC News' battleground map: Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Florida and New Hampshire. Other competitive states include Nevada, which has leaned slightly for Obama in recent polls, and North Carolina, which has tended toward Romney in many recent polls.

"All these states right now, we think the president's in a good position to win," Plouffe said.

Both Obama and Romney spent Saturday barnstorming these battleground states in hope of shoring up their base and shaking loose prized undecided voters in the final hours of the campaign. But their professed confidence belied a much more competitive battle for the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency, especially as an uncertain finale loomed over the 2012 campaign.

The Romney campaign said its Sunday schedule — which took the former Massachusetts governor to Pennsylvania and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to Minnesota — both states which Republicans have only contested as of late — was a sign of surging national momentum. But Democrats castigated those trips as a sign of desperation, as Romney scrambled for new pathways to 270.

One of the most hotly contested battleground states includes Virginia, which Obama has put into play in 2008 and again in 2012. It also has one of the earliest poll closing times in the nation on Tuesday, and could offer political observers an early indicator of the trend lines in the election.

"We're going to win this state, and I think we're going to win it a lot bigger than people are predicting," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican who represents a Richmond-area district.

He added: "I see here on the ground, there is a lot of enthusiasm for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan."

But political bravado is a well-worn tradition for the closing days of the elections, and Plouffe was quick to seize upon Romney's plans to spend some of his final campaign stops in Virginia and Florida, two states he might not be able to afford losing come Tuesday night.

"We think Gov. Romney's playing defense," the White House aide said of Virginia and Florida. "I'd rather be the president today than Gov. Romney in terms of those two states."

Plouffe also characterized the Obama campaign's position in Iowa and Ohio — two footholds of the president's Midwestern "firewall" — as "commanding," though he cautioned the campaign must execute its get-out-the-vote efforts on Tuesday if it is to secure those states.

Follow the final weekend of the campaign with NBC Politics:

• NBC/WSJ poll: Obama 48, Romney 47
• Clinton joins Obama for rally capping whirlwind day
• Uncertain finale looms amid weekend campaign blitz
• Romney implores Colorado for 'one last push'
• Biden zings Romney in Colorado
• Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play
• Obama plays up 'trust' in battleground Ohio
• Obama aide explains 'voting is best revenge' comment
• Ryan: 'We believe in change and hope'
• Romney strikes optimistic tone as final weekend opens
• Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.
• GOP's chances at Senate imperiled by self-inflicted wounds

With just two days until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney are running neck and neck nationally, according to the final national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll before the election.

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Obama gets support from 48 percent of likely voters, while Romney gets 47 percent.

In the NBC/WSJ poll released two weeks ago, the two candidates were deadlocked at 47 percent each.

While both Obama and Romney are running virtually even in this national poll, a majority of surveys from the battleground states – especially in the crucial battlegrounds of Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin – show the president with a slight advantage.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 of 1,475 likely voters (including 443 cell phone-only respondents), and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 2.55 percentage points.

The rest of the survey will be published at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Wrapping a whirlwind day of campaigning, President Barack Obama joined Bill Clinton — the last Democratic president, and vocal advocate for Obama — at a massive rally Saturday evening in northern Virginia. 

Before a crowd estimated at 24,000, Obama both literally and figuratively embraced Clinton, who has emerged as one of the most dogged advocates for the president's re-election campaign this fall. 

"He has been traveling all across the country for this campaign. He's been laying out the stakes so well that our team basically calls him the 'Secretary of Explaining Stuff,'" Obama said. "He was a great president; he has been a great friend."

As the final weekend of the 2012 campaign raised the question of which candidate, Obama or Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, would best move Washington past its intractable problems, Clinton, a president who has only grown more popular since leaving office, offered Obama his imprimatur. 

"As you see, I have given my voice in the service of my president," the hoarse former president said, following some local favorites, the Dave Matthews Band, at the rally in suburban Washington. 

NBC Politics coverage of the 2012 campaign:

• Uncertain finale looms amid weekend campaign blitz
• Romney implores Colorado for 'one last push'
• Biden zings Romney in Colorado
• Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play
• Obama plays up 'trust' in battleground Ohio
• Obama aide explains 'voting is best revenge' comment
• Ryan: 'We believe in change and hope'
• Romney strikes optimistic tone as final weekend opens
• Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.
• GOP's chances at Senate imperiled by self-inflicted wounds

Both Obama and Romney spent the day criss-crossing the United States to make a firmly centrist appeal, each of them trying to sound upbeat as the clock counts down on Election 2012. Each candidate drew thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — of supporters to rallies in Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio and beyond. And each candidate argued he was the one who could break through the gridlock in a Congress beset for the past two years by bitter partisan fights.

"You know that if the president is re-elected, he'll still be unable to work with the people in Congress," Romney told a sprawling crowd in Colorado. "He's ignored them. He's blamed them. He's attacked them."

Romney spent much of the campaign's final weekend arguing he was the candidate of "change," co-opting Obama's 2008 message to use four years later against the president. 

Whether the Republican candidate's claim to to the mantle of change would resonate with a handful of remaining swing voters in just a few battleground states was unclear. Obama seemed to enjoy an edge in states like Iowa, leading Romney by five points among likely voters, according to the Des Moines Register's final poll. But a WMUR poll of New Hampshire also found the president and Romney tied, at 47 percent, in another battleground state: New Hampshire. 

That neither Obama or Romney had managed to open a solid advantage over the other in the final hours of the campaign only raised the stakes for the final series of events on Sunday and Monday. Both Obama and Romney — along with Vice President Biden and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan — were set to hit the road for another robust schedule tomorrow. Obama was set to travel to Colorado, Florida, and New Hampshire; Romney's schedule would take him to Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

ENGLEWOOD, CO — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney implored Colorado voters for "one final push" in his final rally Saturday, making his entreaty to the largest and most boisterous crowd of the day.

"One final push is gonna get us there. We’ve had a lot of short nights and long days and now we’re close," Romney told a crowd of more than 17,000 supporters gathered at an outdoor amphitheater. "The door to a brighter future is there – it’s open, waiting for us.  I need your vote, I need your work, I need your help."

Colorado voters have turned out in large numbers for Romney at recent rallies here, and he'll need the kind of high energy he received tonight to move this state, which most polls show knotted up, back into the Republican column on Tuesday.

In his fourth and final campaign stop of the day, Romney continued to appeal primarily to independent voters with his "closing argument" stump speech, telling his assembled crowd that the president had failed to live up to his lofty promises of change, and would continue to fail to work with Republicans in Congress should be he granted a second term. 

"Change can't be measured in speeches; it is measured in achievements. And four years ago, candidate Obama promised to do so very much. But he has fallen so very short," Romney said. "He promised he would be a post-partisan president, but he has been most partisan — dividing, attacking, blaming."

Romney also added a local touch to his final Colorado appearance. Retelling the tale of a Boy Scout group's flag — thought lost in the Challenger space shuttle explosion, but later recovered unharmed and returned to them — Romney invited a special guest out onstage: Maj. William Tolbert, the US Air Force officer and scoutmaster from Monument, Colorado who figures so prominently in the story, carrying the flag itself, encased in glass.

"That," said Romney as Tolbert stood beside him and the crowd cheered its approval, "is a great flag, representing the greatest nation in the history of the Earth."

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Mitt Romney offered Colorado voters a final look at his presidential résumé on Saturday afternoon, delivering an updated version of his "closing argument" speech to some 4,500 supporters gathered in an airplane hangar here.

"We've got to change course because unless we do we may be looking at another recession," Romney warned. "The question of this election comes down to this: Do you want more of the same or do you want real change?"

Romney will make his "real change" pitch once more for Colorado voters this evening, in his final rally in a state expected to have razor thin margins as votes are tallied on Election Day. As he did in Wisconsin on Friday, Romney focused his remarks on promises to work across the aisle, on keeping an economic focus if elected, and on his resume as a change agent in business and in government.

“You know when I’m elected the economy and American jobs will still be stagnant, but I’m not going to waste any time complaining my predecessor," Romney said. "I will not spend my effort and time trying to pass partisan legislation that’s unrelated to the economy and jobs. From day one, I’m going to go to work to help Americans get back to work.”

Romney was joined on the stump today by his wife Ann, who along with a coterie of top aides usually based in Boston, is traveling with Romney for the final three day stretch of the campaign. Taking the stage here before a large an energetic crowd, she was visibly emotional as she recalled the long road traveled thus far in the campaign.

"That is amazing, to walk in and have this kind of emotion come to us.  It makes me believe we can win Colorado," Mrs. Romney said. "It has been quite a journey. It’s coming to a close. We have three more days."

PUEBLO, Colo. -- It's rare that an audience asks the famously audible Joe Biden to speak up.

But with the acoustics in Pueblo's Central High School gymnasium leaving many of the thousand attendees at his Saturday afternoon rally unable to hear him, they did.

"I wish to hell they'd turn this mic up!" an annoyed Biden declared loudly upon hearing their pleas for more volume.

Biden, who is known to read media coverage of his slip-ups and frequently notes in front of audiences that he "got in trouble" with the press for mistakes,  joked about the kind of headlines that the sound situation could garner as he belted out the remainder of his remarks.

"I'm going to hear a press report," he said as the audience giggled at his imagined headline. "'Biden screamed at the audience.'"

MIDDLETOWN, Penn. — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spearheaded a last-minute effort by Republicans to put Pennsylvania in play on Tuesday with a trip to the Keystone State on Saturday. 

As Election Day draws near, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney's campaign has tried to expand its path to 270 electoral votes by campaigning and spending money in Pennsylvania, a state which last went for a GOP candidate in a presidential election in 1988.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we save America in three days,” Ryan told a group of supporters standing outside his rally at the Harrisburg International Airport.

President Barack Obama carried Pennsylvania during the 2008 election by more than 10 points, but in recent days, nearly $10 million in ad buys by the Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee and GOP super PACs have infiltrated the state.

“Can I just tell you how red Pennsylvania’s gonna be on Tuesday? Because I know how red it’s gonna, it’s gonna be this red, okay,” Sen. Pat Toomey, Ryan’s former roommate on Capitol Hill, said pointing to his bright red jacket.

Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.

Republican Gov. Tom Corbett also joined Ryan Saturday, just three days before the election and believes his state could determine a very tight race between Obama and Romney on Tuesday.

“The one thing I know about Pennsylvania, and I hope you remember: We are the Keystone State. Right? No offense to my friend in Virginia, or to the rest of the country. But we are the Keystone State to this nation and we are the Keystone State to this election,” Corbett said.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

The GOP VP nominee has held three other campaign events in Pennsylvania over the last three months, but holding a rally in the state on the last weekend before the election is typically reserved for key battleground states — further indicating the GOPs desire to win the state.

“I say in 3 days, we win, Obama loses, how does that sound?” Ryan said to a very enthusiastic 2,000-person crowd before heading to the battleground states of Virginia and Florida to wrap up the last Saturday of the campaign.

ARVADA, Colo. -- Ka-zing.

Three days before the election, Vice President Joe Biden pegged his newest critique of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to the semi-annual inconvenience of adjusting clocks for Daylight Savings Time, which occurs tonight.

"It’s Mitt Romney’s favorite time of the year -- because he gets to turn the clock back!" Biden told a crowd of hundreds at a suburban Denver high school.

In his remarks, the vice president accused Romney of embracing social policies out of an earlier era, pointedly noting the GOP nominee's voiced enthusiasm for "getting rid of" Planned Parenthood. 

"With all the issues facing the country, Gov. Romney has focused on for the last three months [that] he's going to get rid of Planned Parenthood" Biden said. "And by the way, he doesn't even know he doesn't control Planned Parenthood."

"He should talk to Big Bird!" he added, referencing the scuffle over public broadcasting funding that broke out during one of the presidential debates.

(In context, Romney said last spring he was going to "get rid" of federal funding for Planned Parenthood, not get rid of the entity itself.)

Biden has two events scheduled in swing state Colorado Saturday. He will campaign Sunday in Ohio.

MENTOR, OH – Driving home his final campaign message, President Barack Obama painted himself as the trustworthy choice in the campaign versus his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.

“When you elect a president, you don’t know what kinds of emergencies may happen. You don’t know what problems he or she may deal with. But you want to be able to trust your president,” he said to a crowd of about 4,000 at a high school in this Cleveland suburb.

The president’s advisers often talk about this election as coming down to “trust,” as does the candidate himself, but his language at Saturday’s rally was particularly explicit in terms of identifying himself as the most trustworthy candidate.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

The president was sure to toast the successes of the Mentor High School band and football team, a tribute to the homespun politics that could make the difference in battleground Ohio.

Recommended: Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play

“I also understand that this band just won the state championship? Best band in Ohio right here! In the house!” he exclaimed, referring to the Fighting Cardinals Marching Band, which entertained supporters (and reporters) with elaborate arrangements of Lady Gaga and AC/DC tunes before the event started.

“And the football team is in is first playoff game tonight! So the Cardinals got a lot going on right now,” Obama continued.

Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.

Romney spokesman Ryan Williams responded to Obama comments with a reference to the president's "voting is the best revenge" comment yesterday.

“With no record to run on and no vision for the future, President Obama is resorting to false, discredited attacks and a cynical closing message urging voters to choose ‘revenge.’ Mitt Romney wants to bring people together and he wants Americans to vote for love of country. He will deliver real change for a real recovery, creating 12 million new jobs with rising take-home pay and a better future for all Americans.”

Updated at 5:50pmET: A rapidly-approaching conclusion loomed over the 2012 election on Saturday, as President Barack Obama, Republican nominee Mitt Romney, their running mates and surrogates swarmed a series of battleground states to make their closing messages.

Obama and Romney each employed a mixture of uplifting, forward-looking rhetoric with attacks on the other during a whirlwind tour of battleground states set to decide the election on Tuesday.

 Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Looking for a catalyzing moment to push past Obama in those swing states, Romney opted to play up the president's comments Friday at a rally, at which he urged supporters to vote as a means of seeking "revenge" against Republicans.

"Yesterday the president said something you may have heard by now that I think surprised a lot of people. Speaking to an audience, he said you know voting is the best 'revenge,'" Romney said. "He told his supporters, voting for revenge. Vote for revenge? Let me tell you what I’d like to tell you: Vote for love of country."

The Obama campaign, in response Saturday afternoon, called the line of attack "very small."

"I think it's interesting that that's the closing argument that the Romney campaign is making," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.

Related: Obama aide explains 'voting is best revenge' comment

The remarks were consistent with Romney's effort to project momentum heading into the campaign's final weekend, riding high after drawing the largest crowd of its campaign at a Friday night rally in Ohio. The Republican ticket has essentially tried to co-opt the themes of "change" from Obama's 2008 campaign as its closing argument now against the president.

But the Romney campaign's outward optimism clashed with new polls giving Obama an ever-so-slight edge in pivotal swing states. New NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls showed Romney trailing Obama by six points among likely voters in Ohio, and by two points in Florida.

 Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's trip Saturday afternoon to Pennsylvania, a state which the GOP has only contended in the final days of the campaign, was emblematic of the campaigns' dueling perspectives toward the campaign. The Romney campaign argued it was a sign of surging momentum while the Obama campaign cast the trip as an act of desperation — a Hail Mary effort driven by foreclosed opportunities in other battleground states. (Romney will stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday.)

While the outcome on Election Day is far from assured, a certain wistfulness set in as Obama looked back at his four years in office. He argued his experience as president showed he was someone whom voters could trust, meaning to imply as well that Romney wasn't.

"When you elect a president, you don’t know what kinds of emergencies may happen. You don’t know what problems he or she may deal with," he said. "But you want to be able to trust your president."

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In this composite photo: President Barack Obama points while speaking at a campaign event at Mentor High School in Ohio, and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Dubuque, Iowa November 3, 2012.  

And amid the late-breaking attack by Romney meant to cast Obama as embittered, the president told a crowd in Mentor, Ohio: "I don't feel cynical. I feel hopeful."

There were signs that awareness of the campaign's approaching horizon had set in among the Romney campaign as well.

"It was very emotional when I gave my last address by myself, because I hear the voices and the passion of the people out there that are really hurting, and they are etched in my mind and my heart, as they are with Mitt," Ann Romney told the press corps traveling with her husband. "It's been an extraordinary experience."

 Recommended: Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play

The full range of reflection would have to wait, though, until Wednesday. Obama and Romney — along with their running mates, Vice President Joe Biden and Ryan — each have a long list of stops ahead of them during the remainder of Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Their efforts are met by hoards of Democratic and Republican surrogates, who fanned out across the country as part of a frenzied effort in hopes of  adding a few more swing states to their candidate's column on Tuesday. 

MENTOR, OH - A day after President Obama’s “voting is the best revenge” comment became the latest object of GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s ire, Obama campaign press secretary Jen Psaki sought to explain the context of the remark.

“The message he was sending,” she said, answering a question about it while traveling to Mentor, Ohio, with reporters on Air Force One, “is if you don’t like the policies, if you don’t like the plan that Gov. Romney is putting forward, if you think that’s a bad deal for the middle class, then you can go to the voting booth and cast your ballot. It’s nothing more complicated than that.”

Obama’s offhand comment came Friday during a campaign rally in Springfield, Ohio, as supporters booed the mention of Romney’s name.

“Don't boo. Vote,” Obama said first, using a line that has become standard for him on the stump. “Voting's the best revenge,” he continued.

Earlier Saturday, Romney condemned the comment as overly negative, telling a crowd in Newington, N.H., that he thought it “surprised a lot of people.”

“Vote for revenge? Let me tell you what I’d like to tell you: Vote for love of country,” Romney said to cheers.

MARIETTA, Ohio — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan echoed Mitt Romney’s call to vote for “love of country” not out of “revenge,” seizing upon a line of President Barack Obama's

“Mitt Romney and I are asking you to vote out of love of country,” Ryan told a crowd at Marietta College. “That's what we do in this country. We don't believe in revenge. We believe in change and hope.”

Ryan was referencing remarks President Obama made Friday, also in the battleground state of Ohio, that voting against the GOP nominee is “the best revenge.”

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Romney’s running mate added Saturday morning, in the heart of coal country: “Look, in 2008 President Obama made all these lofty promises, it sounded so good. He said that we would have bi-partisanship, that he’d bridge the gap. He said he’d cut the deficit in half, that he’d get people working again, and he’d create jobs. You see all those jobs here in Marietta? Look, it sounded good and when he got elected people naturally expected him to deliver those results but it didn’t happen and look what we got.”

The Obama re-election campaign, in an email statement, claimed the GOP ticket is “willing to say anything to win, but their rhetoric just doesn’t match reality.”

With just three days to go before Election Day, it’s the final push for both campaigns and the state of Ohio is center stage.

Recommended: Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play

According to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released early Saturday morning, Obama holds a six-point advantage over Romney among likely voters, 51 percent to 45 percent, in the Buckeye State.

Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.

Romney and Ryan held their final campaign rally together before the Nov. 6 election in Ohio Friday night. They will both make several more appearances separately to the state over the next 72 hours in hopes of securing Ohio’s 18 electoral votes.

NEWINGTON, NH — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney struck an upbeat note as he opened the final weekend of his campaign in the state where he launched his campaign more than 16 months ago.

"I've got a clear and unequivocal message for you: America is about to come roaring back," Romney told a chilly crowd of more than 1,000 supporters gathered to see him off for a busy Saturday of campaigning.

Romney also thanked the Granite State for its support in the Republican primary, and said they would be key to his presidential aspirations on Tuesday. The latest NBC/WSJ/Marist poll, released this week, shows Romney locked in a statistical dead heat here against President Barack Obama; the president leads 49 to 47 percent among likely voters, within the poll's margin of error.

"New Hampshire got me the Republican nomination and New Hampshire is going to get me the White House," Romney said to cheers.

From here, Romney campaigns across Iowa and Colorado on Saturday, with a packed Sunday schedule to follow that also takes him to four battleground states. Romney will next return to New Hampshire on Monday, but left behind today a team of top surrogates to barnstorm the state in his absence: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who joined New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte in introducing Romney here this morning.

Romney shortened his typical stump speech this morning, but left room for a critique of Obama, telling his audience here that "talk is cheap," and that the president "wants to convince you to settle."

"Americans don’t settle – we dream, we aspire, we reach for greater things," Romney said. "And we will achieve greater things with new leadership. "

Jason Reed / REUTERS

President Barack Obama gives a thumbs up as he participates in a campaign rally in Lima, Ohio, Nov. 2, 2012.

Three days until Election Day, President Barack Obama maintains his lead in the key battleground state of Ohio and is locked in a close contest with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Florida, according to new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls.

In Ohio, Obama holds a six-point advantage over Romney among likely voters, 51 percent to 45 percent, which is unchanged from last month’s poll in the Buckeye State.

Read the Ohio poll here

And in Florida, the president gets support from 49 percent of likely voters, while his GOP challenger gets 47 percent. Those numbers are virtually identical to the ones from October, when it was Obama 48 percent, Romney 47 percent.

Both states are two of the biggest prizes in Tuesday’s presidential contest. An Obama victory in Ohio, which awards 18 electoral votes, would put him tantalizingly close to getting to the 270 electoral votes needed to win a second term.

But an Obama loss in the Buckeye State – and a Romney win – would place a hole in the president’s Midwest firewall.

Meanwhile, Florida, which awards 29 electoral votes, is a must-win state for Romney. A Republican loss there would push Obama past 270 electoral votes – even if the president lost every other battleground state in NBC’s current map.

Obama ahead with early voters
As with the recent NBC/WSJ/Marist polls of Iowa and Wisconsin, Obama is benefitting from early voters in Ohio and Florida.

Read the Florida poll here

In the Sunshine State, 63 percent say they have already voted or plan to do so before Election Day, and Obama is winning them, 53 percent to 46 percent. But Romney is ahead among Election Day voters in Florida, 52 percent to 40 percent.

In Ohio, 35 percent say they have already voted or plan to do so, and Obama is leading them, 62 percent to 36 percent. Yet Romney is up among Election Day voters in the Buckeye State, 52 percent to 42 percent.

Strong approval for the president’s handling of Sandy
The polls were conducted after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast, and seven in 10 likely voters in Florida and Ohio approve of the president’s job in handling the hurricane and its aftermath.

“The response was overwhelmingly positive, and that was occurring across party lines,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

On handling the economy
Meanwhile, Romney has a slight advantage over Obama in Florida when it comes to which candidate would better handle the economy – 48 percent pick Romney and 46 percent back Obama.

But those numbers are reversed in Ohio, where 48 percent believe Obama would better handle the economy and 46 percent side with Romney.

On party ID
In these surveys, Democrats enjoy a nine-point party-identification advantage in Ohio and a two-point edge in Florida. Republicans have argued that a nine-point advantage is too large in this current political environment; it was eight points in the Buckeye State during Obama’s decisive 2008 victory.

If you cut that party ID advantage in half, Obama’s six-point lead in Ohio is reduced to three points.

Other numbers in the poll
Obama’s job-approval rating among likely voters stands at 48 percent in Florida and 50 percent in Ohio.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

In Ohio’s Senate contest, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown leads Republican Josh Mandel by five points among likely voters, 50 percent to 45 percent.

And in Florida’s Senate contest, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson leads Republican Connie Mack by nine, 52 percent to 43 percent.

The NBC/WSJ/Marist poll of Florida was conducted Oct. 30-Nov. 1 of 1,545 likely voters, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 2.5 percentage points.

And the survey of Ohio was conducted Oct. 31-Nov.1 of 971 likely voters, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

WEST CHESTER, OH -- Launching a final pre-election sprint, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney capped a pivotal day for his campaign with one of his largest rallies ever here in Ohio flanked by the party's top leaders.

Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told tens of thousands of Ohioans that they were joining a movement to bring change to Washington, an argument set to play out in a state Ryan called the "battleground of battlegrounds."

"I've watched over the last few months as our campaign has gathered, well the strength of a movement," Romney said. "Not only the size of crowds likes this, its the depth of our shared convictions. Our readiness for new possibilities. The sense that our work is soon to begin. its made me strive more to be worthy of your support. To campaign as I would govern. To speak for the aspiration of all Americans."

The event gathered dozens of elected Republicans who will fan out across Ohio and a variety of other swing states this weekend in hopes of pulling those states into the Republican column on Tuesday. The area where Romney held his rally is a more Republican enclave outside of Cincinnati, where the margin between him and Obama could make the difference on Tuesday.

The army of Republican heavyweights included former presidential candidates like Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Arizona Sen. John McCain. They will disperse across the country, though no state may be more pivotal to the Republican ticket's fortunes than Ohio.

"Your state is the one I’m counting on by the way. This is the one we have to win," Romney said.

"Ohio you know it -- you are the lynch pin," Ryan said. "You are the battleground of battlegrounds!"

The speech mostly mirrored the "closing argument" Romney first delivered this morning in Wisconsin, promising "real change" to voters who are disappointed with Obama.

Romney attacked President Barack Obama for today's small uptick in the unemployment rate (to 7.9 percent, even as job creation beat expectations with 171,000 new jobs created in October) and chastised the president for telling an Ohio audience "voting is the best revenge" earlier this afternoon.

"Did you see what President Obama said today? He asked his supporters to vote for revenge," Romney said. "For revenge. Instead I ask the American people to vote for love of country."

Before the top of the ticket took the stage, other speakers looked to keep the chilly crowd fired up, following a concert from Romney supporter Kid Rock.

"We are freezin' for a reason, aren't we," joked Sen. Rob Portman, who chairs Romney's campaign in the state, and urged supporters to take advantage of early voting again on Saturday.

"Can we afford four more years like [those under President Obama]?" asked Speaker of the House John Boehner, in whose district the rally was staged. "Hell no we can't!"

As Romney stuck mostly to script, some of the many surrogates who preceded him riffed on a broader scope of issues. Several Republicans, including 2008 nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain, sharply criticized Obama's handling of a deadly September assault on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. Romney had also been a fierce critic of the president's handling of the incident, but has all but dropped that element from his campaign.

Democrats pounced on the rally as evidence that Romney would not govern in the bipartisan manner he regularly promises on the stump.

"Speaker after speaker offered angry, hyper partisan, and widely-debunked attacks that—at times—veered into conspiracy theory territory," said Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith in a statement. "It’s a fitting end to Mitt Romney’s campaign, since he has kowtowed to the far-right wing of the Republican Party throughout the six years he’s been running for President, leaving little doubt that he’d rubberstamp the Tea Party agenda in the White House."