Updated 1:42 p.m. — A major staple of the Republican presidential nominating process -- the straw poll of Republicans at the Iowa State University in Ames -- could go by the wayside if Iowa's GOP governor gets his way.

Gov. Terry Branstad, who's currently serving his fifth term as governor of the Hawkeye State, told the Wall Street Journal that the straw poll was no longer relevant.

© Brian Frank / Reuters / REUTERS

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad speaks as U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack looks on during a news conference at the Iowa State Capitol March 28, 2012.

"I think the straw poll has outlived its usefulness,"Branstad told the paper. "It has been a great fundraiser for the party but I think its days are over."

The governor's comments earned a rebuke from the chairman of the state Republican party.

"I believe the Iowa Straw Poll is possibly the best way for a presidential campaign to organize (put in place county and precinct leaders & activate them) for Iowa’s First in the Nation Caucus," said A.J. Spiker, the party chairman. "I think it is detrimental for any campaign to skip the opportunity presented in Ames and I disagree with Governor Branstad about ending our Iowa Straw Poll."

Ronda Churchill / AP

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, left, Indiana Gov.-Elect Mike Pence, center, and Republican Governors Association Chairman and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell participate in the RGA Annual Conference on Nov. 15, 2012, in Las Vegas.

The straw poll has more often offered a glimpse of candidates' organizational strength in Iowa, which traditionally hosts the first nominating contest in a presidential contest, than a good predictor of the nominee. Candidates often spend thousands (if not more) on courting votes in the straw poll, hosting elaborate barbecues and musical acts in hopes of emerging from the event with a burst of strength.

But the winner hasn't always gone onto the nomination. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won the straw poll this summer, earning a boomlet for her longshot bid for the nomination that fizzled weeks thereafter. Mitt Romney, the eventual Republican presidential nominee, didn't participate in the straw poll (though he stopped at the state fair during the same weekend); he lost the Iowa caucuses to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum by just a few votes, despite not having campaigned in the state.

"You saw what happened the last time," Branstad told the Journal. "I don’t think candidates will spend the time or money to participate in a straw poll if they don’t see any real benefit coming out of it."

The event was consequential -- in a negative way -- for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who had been thought to be a major contender versus Romney for the GOP nomination. But after Pawlenty's campaign bet almost all of its chips on the Ames event, he ended his bid for the presidency.

Still, the event is a major fundraiser for the Iowa GOP, and future candidates looking to add some momentum to their own campaigns might elect to participate anyway in the straw poll, a bit of presidential pageantry dating back to the 1980 election.

STERLING, Va. -- For a second time in two days, Vice President Joe Biden on Monday predicted a strong electoral showing for Democrats, saying "it's all over but the shoutin.'"

"I'm feeling good," the vice president told reporters at Mimi's Cafe during an unscheduled stop. "I really am but you know, as an old expression goes it's all over but the shoutin'."

Biden predicted - as he did yesterday in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews - that the Obama-Biden ticket will prevail in "firewall" states, but he acknowledged that swing states of Virginia and Florida could be squeakers.

"I'll take a one-vote majority, but I think we have a clear shot at doing well and the so-called firewall," he said, envisioning victory in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.

"I think Florida will be close but I think we have a real shot of winning," he added. "And this state, we got a clear shot of winning it."

Biden's last full day of pre-election campaigning in virginia marks his ninth trip to the state this year.

He is barnstorming today with Senate candidate Tim Kaine, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner and retiring Sen. Jim Webb.

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." 

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

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. 

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is feeling optimistic about a win in the Hawkeye State on Tuesday.

“So I just got a question: Iowa, you gonna help us win this thing?” Ryan asked the crowd at the University of Northern Iowa. “Darn straight. Absolutely. It feels good. We can do it. Right here in the heartland. Right here in the Midwest."

Ryan, a seven-term Wisconsin congressman, told the nearly 1,000-person crowd it could come down to two states.

“Our two states right here – Wisconsin and Iowa – we can tip it over. We can make the difference right here in Iowa,” he said. “Look, in 2008 President Obama won our states. A lot of our fellow Iowans and Wisconsinites looked at the message. They looked at hope and change and it sounded great and so a lot of people voted for that. The president made a lot of grand promises. He said he would heal the partisan wounds and bring people together. This is the most partisan time I have seen in Washington.”

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who made his closing argument speech Friday in Wisconsin, has been speaking a great deal about the need for bipartisanship. Ryan picked up on this theme in Iowa, as well.

“President Obama has not met with the party leaders of the Republican party in the House or the Senate since July. That doesn’t get things done. That’s partisanship. That’s acrimony. Mitt Romney and I have proven that we know how to work with people on the other side of the aisle. We have proven that we know how to get things done,” he said.

With four days to go before Election Day, Ryan and Romney are barnstorming the country – especially the battleground states – to try and defeat the incumbent president.

“A handful of states will determine this. A handful of states. And Iowa, you know this, you’re used to it with the caucuses. You’ve had everybody running for president in your kitchen,” Ryan said as Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, Gov. Terry Branstad, and Lt Gov. Kim Reynolds sat nearby.

According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Wednesday, Obama is ahead of Romney by six points among likely voters, 50 percent to 44 percent, which is down from his eight-point lead earlier this month.

Both Romney and Ryan will hold another event in Iowa -- which will award six electoral votes -- before Nov. 6, and President Obama will travel to Iowa for his final rally Monday night before polls open.

Love him or despise him, many Americans see Vice President Joe Biden as an occasional source of comedic relief - whether he intends it or not.

Getting a few laughs will be at least part of his role five days from Election Day, when the vice president will join the Late Show with David Letterman to read the famed "Top Ten" list.

An aide says Biden taped the segment from his Davenport, IA hotel Thursday between attending church, eating breakfast at a famed local cafe and departing for a campaign event in Muscatine.

No word yet on the topic of the list.

The comedy routine comes as both campaigns try to balance political attacks and the aftermath of a historic storm that devastated parts of New Jersey and Letterman's New York City.

It airs tonight.

AMES, IA -- Promising to deliver "real change" to meet the nation's "big problems," Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney summarized his closing pitch to voters in a major speech Friday in Iowa.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney delivers his speech on the economy during a campaign stop at Kinzler Construction Services, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, in Ames, Iowa.

The former Massachusetts governor, just 11 days out from Election Day, cast the choice facing voters as between "big change" (represented by Romney) and the status quo, as represented by President Barack Obama.

Romney's twenty minute speech was a crisper, cleaner version of the "big change" argument he began laying out on the stump Thursday in Ohio. In it, the Republican nominee accused Obama of shrinking from the many challenges faced by the American people and economy, and tried to offer a hopeful vision for what a Romney-Ryan presidency might look like.

"This is an election of consequence.  Our campaign is about big things, because we happen to believe that America faces big challenges.  We recognize this is a year with a big choice, and the American people want to see big changes.  And together we can bring that kind of change, real change to our country," Romney said.

"Four years ago, candidate Obama spoke to the scale of the times," Romney continued. "Today, he shrinks from it, trying instead to distract our attention from the biggest issues to the smallest -- from characters on Sesame Street and silly word games to misdirected personal attacks he knows are false."

Romney told a crowd of more than 2,000 supporters here that he and Ryan would take on the "big problems that everyone agrees can’t wait any longer" -- including reforming entitlements, curbing health care costs and breaking partisan gridlock in Washington, an issue on which he also battered the president for failing to live up to his promises.

"The president's campaign falls far short of the magnitude of these times. And the presidency of the last four years has fallen far short of the promises of his last campaign," Romney said. "Four years ago, America voted for a post-partisan president, but they have seen the most partisan of political of presidents, and a Washington in gridlock because of it."

While the speech was billed as a major policy address by the Republican's campaign, it, in fact, largely restated many of the policies about which Romney has talked throughout the campaign. But it offered the GOP nominee a chance to frame the election on his own terms, and argue that his track record suggests he would be more successful in breaking partisan gridlock in Washington.

"We’re going to will meet with Democrat and Republican leaders in Washington regularly, we’re going to look for common ground and shared principles, we’ll put the interests of the American people above the interests of the politicians,” Romney said.

The return to first principles for the Romney campaign -- focusing tightly on kitchen table economic issues and attacking Obama on a litany of issues -- comes as the campaign has looked to project confidence and momentum as the race hurtles towards its conclusion on Nov. 6.

"All the trendlines are positive, both in the national polls and the battleground states," senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters before the event.

The Obama campaign characteristically disputed Romney's speech.

"Romney has started promising ‘big change,’ but the only change Romney’s offering is to take us back to the same failed policies that crashed our economy in the first place," Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement responding to Friday's speech. "That’s not the change we need, and with every ‘major speech,’ Mitt Romney just reminds voters that’s all he’s got to offer.”

DAVENPORT, IA -- President Barack Obama would win a second term if the election were held today, a top adviser to the president argued Wednesday.

A sanguine David Plouffe told reporters Wednesday Obama maintains several paths to winning 270 electoral votes despite some polls showing tightening races in some swing states.

“We win the election if it were held today,” the senior White House adviser told reporters traveling after Obama’s event in Davenport, IA. "Our view is that in all the battleground states we’ve contested, every single one of them, we have a credible pathway to 50 percent."

He counted even the more challenging states for Obama, such as North Carolina, Virginia and Florida in that mix and suggested that the Romney campaign’s continued heavy resource allocation in some of those states meant they weren’t as confident about them as they might say.

“If they felt good about Florida and Virginia I think you’d begin to see them curtail a little bit. And we feel that Florida and Virginia are very winnable for the president,” Plouffe said.

Plouffe also said that the dustup surrounding the president’s interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board, which was first kept off the record but then put back on after the Register went public about it, would not affect voters in Iowa who might be reading that newspaper.

“I know it’ll be a flurry of interest for a few hours but I don’t think it’s something that will impact people who are still deciding how to vote,” he said.

Asked to respond to Donald Trump’s offer of charity money if President Obama releases his college transcripts, Plouffe, grinning, told reporters, “Direct questions to Boston. Because Donald Trump is Mitt Romney’s biggest supporter so he owns everything he says.” 

Updated 4:32 p.m. - DAVENPORT, IA -- President Barack Obama kicked off a swing state barnstorm with a rally Wednesday in Davenport, Iowa – the state he credits with giving his 2008 campaign its first big boost.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama arrives on stage for a campaign event October 24, 2012 at Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, Iowa.

“This is the first stop on our 48-hour fly-around campaign marathon extravaganza,” Obama told a crowd of 3,500 at the Mississippi River fairgrounds.

“We're going to pull an all-nighter -- no sleep. We're starting here in Iowa; we're going to Colorado, then we're going to go Nevada, then we're going to Florida, Virginia, Ohio. I am going to stop in Chicago to vote,” he said, urging the crowd to vote early in Iowa, as he will in his hometown. 

Obama also continued to hit a theme of “who can you trust more,” saying that, unlike Romney, Obama’s positions on issues over the past decade have been consistent.

“You could take a videotape of things I've said 10 years ago, 12 years ago and you'd say, man, this is the same guy, has the same values, cares about the same people - doesn't forget where he came from. Knows who he's fighting for,” he said.

The Romney campaign responded to the president's event with a  statement from campaign spokesman Ryan Williams: "President Obama proved once again today that his campaign is getting smaller and smaller as Election Day approaches. Another four years of President Obama’s policies will mean lower incomes, higher taxes, and more debt. A glossy brochure full of the same policies that haven’t worked over the last four years is no substitute for a real agenda that will help grow the middle class and restore America’s strength. In two weeks, Americans will choose Governor Romney's positive agenda over President Obama's increasingly desperate attacks.”  

After the rally in Davenport, the president was headed to Denver, CO for another campaign event.

President Barack Obama suggested he'll be able to achieve a major fiscal reform deal as well as comprehensive immigration reform in his second term, according to his off-the-record conversation with the Des Moines Register.

The White House reversed course on insisting that the president's conversation on Tuesday with the editor and the publisher of the Iowa paper remain off-the-record and allowed the paper to publish a transcript of the conversation.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama chats with well-wishers October 24, 2012 upon arrival at Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, Illinois.

In the conversation, the president asserted he would be able to get to some unfinished business from his first term if he's elected to a second, while simultaneously arguing that Republican nominee Mitt Romney would have a difficult time meeting all of his commitments.

"It will probably be messy. It won’t be pleasant. But I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time," Obama told the Iowa paper of the upcoming "fiscal cliff," which Obama said he expected to dominate the first six months of next year.

The fiscal cliff refers to the combination of automatic spending cuts -- particularly to the defense budget -- and tax hikes set to take place on Jan. 1, barring action by Congress. The fiscal cliff is largely the byproduct of legislative stalemate over the past two years, and economists generally agree their combined effect would be disastrous for the U.S. economy.

Obama suggested his grand bargain would offer "$2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in spending," which he said "credibly" fits within the parameters of the bipartisan, Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission Obama had organized but whose recommendations the president declined to endorse.

The president also suggested immigration reform might come more easily during the next four years, precisely because of the rhetoric Romney and other Republicans had used on the issue.

Obama said:

The second thing I’m confident we’ll get done next year is immigration reform. And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt. Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community. And this is a relatively new phenomenon. George Bush and Karl Rove were smart enough to understand the changing nature of America. And so I am fairly confident that they’re going to have a deep interest in getting that done. And I want to get it done because it’s the right thing to do and I've cared about this ever since I ran back in 2008.

Romney had run to the right of his challengers on the issue of immigration during this year's Republican primary, which contributed to the 45-point deficit versus Obama among Latino voters from which Romney now suffers. The GOP nominee has sought to stoke Latino disappointment in Obama's failure to achieve comprehensive immigration reform, and Romney has vowed to seek immigration reform during his first year, if elected. But Romney hasn't specified the contours of his immigration proposals.

Obama also argued to the Des Moines Register that Romney would have a tough time even reaching those proposals, since he'd be forced to reckon with politically bloody battles over repealing Obama's health reform or Wall Street reform laws, and would almost certainly have to propose a variation of the fiscally conservative budgets authored by his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

Obama said:

And the problem you’ve seen in this campaign is he’s made commitments -- his first day he’s got to introduce a bill to repeal Obamacare. And that's a commitment he cannot back off of. That is a huge, messy fight. His first day in office, he has to make some commitments in rolling back things like the Consumer Finance Protection Board we put in place on Wall Street reform. His budget -- the Ryan budget -- there’s no way that, if he’s president, he can avoid having a showdown on a budget that his running mate introduced, or a variation of it, because he’s committed to cutting spending by 20 percent across the board on discretionary and increasing defense spending by $2 trillion.

The Des Moines Register, one of the most influential papers in Iowa, a battleground state worth six electoral votes on Nov. 6, will publish its endorsement on Saturday evening.