McCain makes last pitch to Southwest Virginia voters

John McCain yesterday made a last pitch to Southwest Virginia voters, urging several thousand supporters to keep battleground Virginia in the Republican column today.

"Thank you, Virginia. Thank you, Tri-Cities," McCain said at an airport rally just over the Tennessee line in Blountville.

Some 5,000 people jammed into an airport hangar to cheer McCain as he spoke of his plans to develop clean coal technology.

"This kind of excitement is what wins elections. We're going to win this election tomorrow, and we're going to keep Virginia red," he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

McCain, sounding hoarse, was on a whirlwind tour of seven states: Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. He would end his day at home in Arizona.

Barack Obama and McCain are in a close battle for Virginia's 13 electoral votes.

According to the final poll conducted for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Obama holds a commanding lead in Northern Virginia and a slight edge in Hampton Roads. McCain leads in four other regions, including 55 percent to 37 percent in Southwest Virginia with 8 percent undecided.

McCain's day started in Florida, where he told about 1,000 people in Tampa, "With this kind of enthusiasm, this kind of intensity, we will win Florida and we will win the election."

The Arizona senator said he, like Obama, opposes President Bush's economic policies. But McCain insisted he wouldn't raise taxes and that Obama could be counted on to do so.

McCain promised to turn the page on the Bush era and warned about his opponent's intentions. "Senator Obama is in the far left lane" of politics, he said. "He's more liberal than a guy who calls himself a socialist, and that's not easy."

"I'm an American, and I choose to fight!" McCain proclaimed at the Tampa event and others in Pennsylvania and Indiana.

"When I'm president," he said again and again through the day, filling in a litany of the good things to follow: More jobs, lower energy costs. A president who would bring change and not just talk about it.

"When I'm president, we're going to win in Afghanistan, win in Iraq, and our troops will come home with victory and honor."

In Roswell, N.M., home of a UFO incident in the 1940s, McCain joked that he had won the alien endorsement. He also reminded supporters there that he was a Western senator.

"I understand water issues. I understand land. I understand native American issues. My opponent does not," McCain said.

Buoyed by what campaign manager Rick Davis said was a surge in polling, the campaign was even adding stops today, in New Mexico and Colorado.

Republican running mate Sarah Palin campaigned in Ohio. "Now is not the time to experiment with socialism," she said. "Our opponent's plan is just for bigger government."

Palin was racing through five states Bush won in 2004 -- Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada -- in an effort to boost conservative turnout for McCain. The Alaska governor has been a popular draw for many GOP-base voters.