Updated 11:27 a.m. - President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney returned Monday evening to the states that launched their respective bids for the presidency, wrapping their campaigning ahead of Election Day. 

Joined by their spouses, Obama returned to Iowa -- where he won the 2008 caucuses -- and Romney stopped in New Hampshire -- where he won the primary at the beginning of this year -- to bring to an end their long, hard battle over whom Americans would select as their president for the next four years. 

"I've come back to Iowa one more time to ask for your vote," a visibly emotional Obama told a crowd near his first campaign office in Des Moines. "Because this is where our movement for change began. Right here."

"It's out of my hands now," he said. "It's up to you."

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

Mitt Romney holds a rally at Orlando Sanford international airport in Orlando, Fla., Nov. 5, 2012.

Both Obama and Romney seemed to drink in the adulation of their supporters in the closing hours of the campaign, before voters would take to the polls in fewer than 12 hours to render their verdict on the election.

"This is a special moment for Ann and for me, because this is where our campaign began," Romney said to a crowd in New Hampshire. "Your primary vote put me on the path to win the Republican nomination, and tomorrow your votes and your work here in New Hampshire will help me become the next president of the United States."

The stops mostly concluded the campaigning of the 2012 election. Romney was set to make stops Tuesday in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and Republican vice presidential nominee would also stop in Cleveland and Richmond. Those stops, though, were billed as less formal than the giant, raucous rallies that have dominated the candidates' schedules in the closing days of the campaign.

Obama and Romney capped what was a "barnburner" final day of campaigning, as he and Romney hop-scotched across the country to make stops in the states on which they're relying tomorrow.

Ryan launches campaign 'barnburner' in Obama-leaning Nevada

Romney made a four-state tour through Florida, Virginia and Ohio – states that are critical to his hopes of becoming president – before concluding in New Hampshire, the cornerstone of Romney’s victory in the GOP presidential primary earlier this year, and the state neighboring Massachusetts, where Romney served as governor and his campaign is now headquartered.

The president spent the day visiting Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio -- the states composing his Midwestern "firewall," where he's sought to build an advantage over Romney.

Their schedules, coming on the heels of a jam-packed weekend of campaigning across the country by both the candidates and their surrogates, was nothing short of a “barnburner,” as Ryan put it at first rally of the day, in Nevada.

“We're doing a barnburner today,” Ryan said in the state, which is seen as leaning toward Obama in NBC News’ battleground map. “We are crisscrossing the country – Mitt and I are because we are asking you to work with us, to stand with us to get our country back on the right track.”

Both Obama and Romney stuck to well-worn scripts that they had used throughout the frenetic final days of the campaign. The candidates at times seemed to acknowledge that much of the campaign’s outcome might be out of their hands, pleading with supporters to sway a winnowing number of swing voters over to their cause.

“Your voices are being heard all over the nation loud and clear, thank you,” Romney said in Virginia. “I also want to thank many of you in this crowd that have been out there working on the campaign – making calls from the victory centers, and by putting up a yard sign, in your neighbor’s yard and maybe convincing a coworker to vote for Paul Ryan and me.”

Obama kicked off his first rally of the day with rocker Bruce Springsteen, who would hitch a ride with the president to Columbus for an afternoon rally, which was also to feature rapper Jay-Z.

"I get to fly around with him on the last day I'll ever campaign, so that's not a bad way to end things," he said of Springsteen, who will accompany Obama to Columbus, Ohio, on Air Force One.

Both Obama and Romney’s schedules, though, sent a powerful signal about their fundamental strategy for Election Day.

The states Romney is visiting, for instance, are virtually essential for his hopes come Tuesday. Failing to win Florida, for instance, would force Romney to have to win every single other remaining battleground state.

Obama’s stops, meanwhile, suggested attentiveness to his so-called “firewall,” which Republicans have argued is cracking amid surging Republican enthusiasm in battleground states.

Slideshow: Election 2012

Reuters, Getty Images

Campaigning with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, voting and election results.

Launch slideshow

Vice President Joe Biden, during a stop at a cafe in Sterling, Va., predicted the bloc would hold.

“I think we’ll win Ohio, I think we’ll win Wisconsin, I think we’ll win Iowa. I think we’ll win Nevada, I think we’ll win new Hampshire,” he told reporters. He added that Florida would be “close,” but said he thought “have a real shot of winning” the Sunshine State.

As they made their final arguments to sprawling crowds throughout the day, both Romney and Obama got an assist from additional superstars who entertained audiences before rallies had begun.

Larry Downing / Reuters

Supporters hold a sign as President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at Fifth Third Arena at the University of Cincinnati, Nov. 4, 2012.

Obama was traveling with Springsteen and Jay-Z on Monday, but Katy Perry and John Mellencamp had played before other Obama audiences over the weekend. Romney’s rally on Monday in Ohio was also slated to feature the Marshall Tucker Band.

Both Springsteen and Jay Z each did special songs for the Obama campaign, in Jay Z's case, changing an epithet in one of his songs to reference Romney instead.

"If you're having world problems, I feel bad for you son," he said, "I got 99 problems, but Mitt ain't one."

SANFORD, FL -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said farewell to Florida voters on Monday morning, making his final stop here at the top of a four-stop, four-state tour of battleground states on the second-to-last day of the election.

Romney, whose path to the White House would be significantly endangered by a loss in Florida, said that a better tomorrow begins with a Romney victory on Tuesday.

"Tomorrow, we begin a better tomorrow. This nation is going to change for the better tomorrow. Your work is making a difference, the people of the world are watching, the people of America are watching," Romney said at an airplane hangar rally in an Orlando suburb this morning. "We can begin a better tomorrow tomorrow, and with the help of the people in Florida, that's exactly what's going to happen."

Romney, joined by Republican statehouse leaders past and present, including sitting Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and the popular former Gov. Jeb Bush, urged Floridians to get to the polls on Tuesday, asking for "every single vote."

"Look, we have one job left and that's to make sure that on election day we get, make certain that everybody who's qualified to vote gets out to vote," Romney said. "We need every single vote in Florida."

Advisers to the campaign say that of the three biggest swing states -- Florida, Virginia and Ohio -- they're most confident about a victory in Florida on Tuesday, and the candidate's schedule reflects that confidence.

This morning's rally marked Romney's final appearance in the sunshine state. He has two more rallies planned today in Virginia, and the Associated Press has reported the campaign is considering adding one last Ohio rally on Tuesday, after what was expected to be Romney's final appearance in that state at an airport hangar rally this afternoon

Virginia remains a toss up. That’s the takeaway from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll out from the battleground released Sunday.

Read the full Virginia poll here (.pdf)

Just two days before what is shaping up to be a very tight presidential election, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney remain in a statistical tie for Virginia's crucial 13 electoral votes. Obama holding a narrow 48 percent to 47 percent edge among likely voters in the commonwealth. (There’s little change with registered voters – Obama’s advantage grows one point, 48 percent to 46 percent.)

Three weeks ago, the results were reversed in the poll, with Romney holding a 48 percent to 47 percent edge.

The president continues to benefit from better feelings about the direction of the country. While more people think that the country is headed in the wrong direction (49 percent) than the right path (46 percent), it's still an improvement from just three weeks ago when the spread was 10 points (53 percent wrong direction, 43 percent right path).

Biden on 'Hardball:' Obama's firewall will hold

That’s a consistent trend seen in the battlegrounds and national polls since Labor Day. Voters had consistently been saying the country was off on the wrong track by much wider margins.

There also continues to be a slight gender gap, with the president leading Romney 51 percent to 45 percent among women, but that chasm has been cut in half since last month.

That’s about the margin Obama won by in Virginia in 2008 over Republican Sen. John McCain – seven points.

But more men said they support the president this month than last. Last month, Romney led by 15 points with men; this month, it’s five points. McCain beat Obama with men by four points in 2008 in Virginia.

Final NBC/WSJ poll before election: Obama 48 percent, Romney 47 percent

Obama’s approval is 49 percent, a point better than his ballot score. Seven-in-10 Virginians said they approve of the president’s handling of Hurricane Sandy.

Geography is key to either side’s victory on Tuesday. The president needs to run up big margins in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. He leads there by 17 points, 56 percent to 39 percent. But in the swing Northern Virginia exurbs, Romney holds a narrow edge at 49 percent to 47 percent. Romney also leads by five points in the central/western part of the state, is up eight points in swing Richmond/eastern part of the state, and is tied with Obama in the Tidewater region.

Romney leads by five points with independents, but Obama leads by 12 points with moderates. In 2008, Obama won independents by a point and moderates by 17 points.

In the Senate race, Democrat Tim Kaine continues to edge Republican George Allen 49 percent to 46 percent, a two-point improvement for Kaine.

The poll was conducted Nov. 1-2, interviewed 1,165 likely voters, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points. The party ID in the poll is +3D. In 2008, it was +6D.

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.

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.

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."