Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin: Eight days

by Mark Silva

People tend to get carried away at times like these.

People like Terrel Brown and Ben Wise, of bellwether Canton, Ohio, a place that has voted like Ohio has in most presidential elections, in a state that has voted like the United States has in most presidential elections.

No surprise that both Barack Obama and John McCain both campaigned there today, eight days from Election Day. Brown and Wise, pictured in the AP photo abve by Phil Long, turned out for Obama in Canton.

And Obama, pictured here by the AP's Jae C. Hong, had a few more wating for him there in battleground Ohio.

Polls portray a close contest in Ohio.

"Sen. McCain might be worried about losing an election,'' Obama said, "but I'm worried about Americans who are losing their homes, and their jobs, and their life savings."

John McCain, the Republican nominee, campaigned Kettering, a suburb of Dayton, with an attempt to persuade voters that his plan for the economy is better than Obama's. He is pictured here in a photo by Stephen Crowley of the New Tork Times.

In Dayton, McCain returned to one of his favorite themes, that Obama is too liberal for the United States and favors "redistribution of wealth." Obama has called for a tax increase for those earning more than $250,000 a year couple with a tax cut for those earning less.

McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, was campaigning across Virginia today, pictured here in Fredericksburg in a photo by Steve Helber of the AP.

Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, campaigned in Greenville, N.C., on the campus of East Carolina University, where Takaaki Iawbu of the Raleigh News and Observer pictured him emerging from the curtains.

In Virginia, Palin is attempting to hold a state which hasn't voted Democratic since 1964, but where Obama is strongly favored in the latest polls.

North Carolina has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1976 - Jimmy Carter, a Southerner.

President Bush comfortably carried the state in both his election and reelection, with 56 percent of the vote. Yet the latest polling there has portrayed it as a toss-up between Obama and McCain.