Updated 4:08 p.m. ET - STERLING, VA -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign announced Monday afternoon that the candidate would add two campaign stops on Election Day in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

A campaign official said Romney would make stops in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, part of what the GOP nominee's campaign called an effort to "keep working until the polls close."

Romney campaign advisers have eyed Pennsylvania in recent weeks as a backstop against losing other battleground states, especially as Obama has managed to maintain a mostly consistent if slight advantage over Romney in Ohio. Pennsylvania lacks a robust early voting effort and the vast majority of ballots are cast on election day. Romney's campaign and outside groups supporting it have poured money into television advertising there in recent weeks.

Pittsburgh has advantage of bleeding over into the Ohio media markets, too.

David Goldman / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves to supporters after finishing his speech at a campaign event at the Lynchburg Regional Airport, Monday, Nov. 5, 2012.

In Cleveland, Romney will visit his campaign's victory office, according to a Republican operative familiar with the campaign's plans.

Romney will travel to the two Midwestern battlegrounds after voting in Belmont, Massachusetts on Tuesday morning.

On Monday, Romney barnstormed across four swing states, with rallies in Florida, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire. The New Hampshire midnight rally in in Manchester had been billed as the campaign's finale.

Jen Psaki, the traveling campaign spokeswoman for President Barack Obama, suggested the stop was a sign of weakness.

Slideshow: Election 2012

Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

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

Launch slideshow

"I will say it's no surprise that Mitt Romney is headed to Ohio, or reportedly headed to Ohio tomorrow," she told reporters in a gaggle aboard Air Force One. "Without that state it's a rocky road to victory -- an insurmountable road I would say."

Romney campaign advisers say the candidate himself decided on Monday to add the last minute stops, preferring to motivate volunteers and supporters by showing them that he was working just as hard as they are in the final hours, to sitting at home and waiting for results to come in.

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.

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

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.

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. 

DAYTON, OH — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will launch ads in Pennsylvania before the election to bolster what the GOP calls an effort to build upon momentum in the Democratic-leaning state. 

NBC News ad-tracking sources report the Romney campaign has bought only $120,000 in ad time, which the Republican National Committee said covers only Nov 5-6 — next Monday and Election Day itself. But the new effort is Romney's first foray into Pennsylvania since GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan held an airport rally near Pittsburgh on Oct. 20. Romney last campaigned in Pennsylvania in late Sept.

The Romney campaign said Tuesday that this effort marked an expanded capacity for the former Massachusetts governor to win a more reliably blue state. But the buy, for now, is only for Johnstown-Altoona (central PA) and Philadelphia, which is a small buy given the expensive Philly TV market. 

Romney joins Restore Our Future, a supportive super PAC, in advertising in Pennsylvania. The super PAC's move prompted President Barack Obama's campaign to make its own ad buy in the state, spending at least $1.3 million on broadcast and cable in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from Wednesday through Election Day. The size of that ad buy could expand. 

The Romney campaign released a copy of a new ad, entitled "Crushed by your policies," which focuses on coal miners in western Pennsylvania. That spot could have crossover appeal into swing territory in eastern Ohio, where the economy also relies on coal.

The Romney campaign's released a memo accompanying news of its ad buy, arguing that the new ad was evidence that Romney would be going on offense in the Keystone State, which last voted for a Republican in 1988.

"With one week to go, and 96 percent of the vote on the table on Election Day in Pennsylvania, this expansion of the electoral map demonstrates that Governor Romney’s momentum has jumped containment from the usual target states and has spread to deeper blue states that Chicago never anticipated defending," Romney campaign political director Rich Beeson wrote in the memo.

The Obama campaign quickly fired back with a memo of their own, and arguing that the late game effort by the Romney campaign to compete in traditionally blue states indicated fear in Boston that Romney would lose Ohio, a state he's campaigned in more than any other, and in which many independent analysts agree his political fortunes may yet rest.

“Three things are now absolutely clear in this race – we have a significant early vote advantage in states from North Carolina to Nevada, there is no Romney momentum in the battleground states, and the Romney campaign has found itself with a tremendously narrow and improbable path to 270 electoral votes," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina wrote. "Now, like Republicans did in 2008, they are throwing money at states where they never built an organization and have been losing for two years.  Let’s be very clear, the Romney campaign and its allies decision to go up with advertising in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Minnesota is a decision made out of weakness, not strength."

Vice President Joe Biden was set to campaign in Pennsylvania this week, but the trip was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy.

Today's Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on a challenge to the state's strict new voter ID law amounts to this message to the state: either prove that voters can easily get a new photo ID card or face the near-certain prospect that the state Supreme Court will block it from going into effect.

A state court judge in Pennsylvania ruled last month against a group of challengers to the new law, citing insufficient proof that it would disenfranchise minority voters. The challengers immediately appealed, and now the state's Supreme Court has overturned the lower court ruling, sending the case back to the judge with instructions to figure out what the practical implications of the law will actually be.

Here's the rub. The Pennsylvania legislature, in requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls, intended to make it easy for residents without a drivers license to get a voter ID card by showing only a minimal amount of identification when they apply for one. But the state agencies responsible for issuing voter ID cards are instead insisting on more rigorous proof of identity than the new law requires. 

The agencies are demanding that applicants produce a birth certificate stamped with a raised seal, a Social Security card, and two other forms of identification showing the current residence. The state agencies say if they give the cards out on the more relaxed basis spelled out in the new voter ID law, that would create a homeland security problem, because the cards can be used to board aircraft.  

So today, the state Supreme Court instructed the judge to take another crack at this case and determine whether the state will actually make it difficult to get one of these ID cards.

Until then, the law remains in effect. But the court made it clear today that unless the state can demonstrate that the voter ID cards can be obtained in the more relaxed manner spelled out in the new law, then the court would almost certainly block the voter ID law before the general election in November.  

SHANKSVILLE, PA -- Of all Joe Biden's political skills and foibles, perhaps his most powerful asset was on display in Shanksville, PA on Tuesday: Compassion in the face of others' grief.

Biden, who lost his wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident, commemorated 9/11 victims at the site of the Flight 93 crash and described with heavy emotion the grief he knows their families felt in the aftermath of the terror attacks.

Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

Vice President Joseph Biden speaks at the Flight 93 National Memorial during observances commemorating the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in Shanksville, Pa, on September 11, 2012.

"No matter how many anniversaries you experience, for at least an instant, the terror of that moment returns, the lingering echo of that phone call, that sense of total disbelief that envelops you," he said. "You feel like you're being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest."

"My hope for you all is that as every year passes, the depth of your pain recedes," he continued. "And you find comfort - as I have - genuine comfort in recalling his smile, her laugh, their touch."  

The ceremony, which included a reading of each of the 40 passengers and crew members' names, took place at the still-incomplete memorial in the small Pennsylvania town where the hijacked plane crashed.

Offering comfort on a sparkling morning not unlike the one of the terror attacks, Biden said the nation has not forgotten the heroes' sacrifice.

"They’ve not forgotten the heroism of your husbands, wives, sons daughters, mothers, fathers," he said. "And that what they did for this country is still etched in the minds of not only you, but millions of Americans forever."

WEST CHESTER, PA -- Presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan blamed President Barack Obama for putting “almost 44,000 jobs at stake” here in Pennsylvania because of the looming defense cuts.

Speaking outside the American Helicopter Museum & Education Center, Ryan argued that under the Obama administration, “you either lose defense jobs in Pennsylvania or put small businesses further in a competitive disadvantage to compete in the global economy and lose small business jobs.”

"I’ve got a good idea – why don’t we take away President Obama’s job and create jobs for everybody no matter what industry they are in. That’s a good stimulus project," Ryan said.

Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, voted for the debt ceiling deal last summer, which included the sequestration of defense spending.

In the year since then, Ryan has joined other House Republicans in passing legislation to put off those defense cuts by finding savings elsewhere. However, the Obama administration has rejected these calling it an unbalanced package since it would rely on cuts elsewhere, rather than include a mix of tax hikes. The president has vowed to veto any attempt to undo the sequester.

The Wisconsin congressman, who made his Pennsylvania debut today on the stump, first talked about sequestration -- the pending $500 billion in defense cuts -- on the campaign trail in Virginia on Aug. 17.

Both Virginia and Pennsylvania have a heavy military presence in their states.

Ryan declared here just outside of Philadelphia: “national defense is the first priority of the federal government.”

The seven-term congressman has had his national security credentials called into question since being announced as VP as he typically deals with domestic issues.

However, in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that will air this evening, Ryan said he believes he has more experience with foreign policy than President Obama did when he took office in 2008.

“Well, most of the traveling I’ve done throughout my 14 years in Congress has been to the Middle East. You know, I’ve had men and women to war on more than one occasion. I’ve been to those funerals. I’ve talked to the widows and the wives and the parents. I’ve gone to Afghanistan and Iraq to meet with our troops, to learn from them. Obviously, I have a lot more experience than Barack Obama did when he became president. But if you take a look at our current posture, President Obama is quote-unquote, “leading from behind,” Ryan said.

Dan Balz: “What is most striking about the campaign at this point is not just the negativity or the sheer volume of attack ads raining down on voters in the swing states. It is the sense that all restraints are gone, the guardrails have disappeared and there is no incentive for anyone to hold back. The other guy does it, so we're going to do it too."

More: “Mock outrage has long been a part of every campaign’s toolbox, but there is a sense now that the outrage is genuine, that the disrespect that the Chicago and Boston teams feel for each other has escalated and becomes the justification for ever harsher attacks… This campaign will end in November. Then it will be either Obama’s or Romney’s responsibility to try to govern. Both sides have turned the contest into an all-or-nothing battle and hope to claim a mandate on the basis of the outcome. But it will take time and great effort for the winner to drain the poison from the system if the campaign continues on this course.”

Obama leads in Pennsylvania, 44-38%, according to a new Franklin and Marshall poll, Political Wire notes. He was up 12 in June.

There won’t be any political ads on 9/11 for the third straight year.

TOLEDO, OH -- Mitt Romney's campaign is putting on the brass knuckles in preparation for a no-holds-barred counteroffensive against President Obama's onslaught against the presumptive GOP nominee.

After a week of weathering scrutiny from Democrats and in the media, Romney's team has signaled it plans to launch an aggressive attack against the president, starting yesterday on the stump in Pennsylvania, when Romney accused Obama of cronyism during his time in office.

Evan Vucci / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns at Horizontal Wireline Services July 17 in Irwin, Pa.

The new tack is aided by a new wave of spending by supporters of Romney. The cavalry arrived on Tuesday, as outside groups like Crossroads GPS and the Republican National Committee are helping Team Romney this week double up on Team Obama on the airwaves in swing states, $16 million to $8 million.

And there's more to come, Romney advisers say; Boston believes that the Obama campaign opened the door to a new level of negativity when deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter suggested last week on a conference call that Romney had either misled the American people about his time at Bain, or possibly had committed a felony by lying to the SEC about his departure date.

Inside the Romney camp, the "felon" moment was seen as a cue to drop the gloves, with Romney loyalists privately furious about the remark, but also seeing opportunity.

The president's brand, they contend, has always been to stay above the fray and not to be a normal politician. Now, one Romney adviser said, Obama has no higher ground to claim. The Romney ad team and campaign manager Matt Rhoades, all seasoned in the brutal 2004 Bush re-election campaign, know how to wage a fight on the low ground.

One adviser said that while they might not need to go personal to make their attacks effective, the “felon” comment made nothing off-limits in the Romney counterattacks.

Many conservatives had been clamoring for a more aggressive effort by the Republican’s campaign to respond to the president after being forced to fend off a wave of questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and whether he would release past tax records.

The former Massachusetts governor offered the first preview of what’s to come during his stump speech yesterday in Pennsylvania, when Romney reopened an old line of attack by accusing Obama of cronyism in his dealings with green technology firms like automaker Fisker or the defunct Solyndra.

“I am ashamed to say that we’re seeing our President hand out money to the businesses of campaign contributors, when he gave money, $500 million in loans to a company called Fisker that makes high end electric cars, and they make the cars now in Finland," Romney said. "That is wrong and it’s got to stop. That kind of crony capitalism does not create jobs and it does not create jobs here.”

Even though independent fact-checkers have cast doubts on that line of attack, the Romney campaign doubled down in a new television ad this morning that largely made the same case.

“Where did all the Obama stimulus money go?” the ad asks, before answering in ominous floating text: “Friends, Donors, Campaign Supporters, Special Interest Groups.”

Also today, Romney himself will continue to counter the president's messaging with economy-focused attacks, with an aide telling reporters that today Romney will say the president has plainly "just given up on the economy."

What’s more, many of Romney’s surrogates have taken up the task of leveling some of the most damning criticisms of Obama. Evidence of that came on Tuesday, when the Romney campaign unleashed its attack dog – former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, who on a conference call with reporters yesterday said he wished President Obama "would learn how to be an American."

Sununu walked back that line later, but in the same call other Romney supporters called the president's policies "socialist" and name-checked Tony Rezko, a corrupt Chicago political fundraiser Republicans have tried to link to the president.

One key factor, though, is hobbling the Romney offensive: cash.

The campaign spent $87 million, one Romney insider explained, in winning the Republican primary. Every TV-ready public event costs money to organize – anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000. And while Romney has touted impressive funraising totals between his campaign and the RNC in recent months, much of that money remains off-limits to the candidate until he is formally nominated in late August – and much of it is tied up in state parties and at the RNC, where it can't be deployed directly by the campaign.

NBC's Mark Murray and Michael O'Brien contributed.