John McCain and Barack Obama began their final push for the White House on Saturday, returning to the themes that had marked their candidacies, with Obama calling for a break from the Bush era and McCain challenging Obama’s credentials to lead the country during difficult times.The campaign’s final days brought a reminder of Obama’s financial might through his ambitious effort to redraw the political map. He is spending his time campaigning in states that went Republicans four years ago — Colorado, Missouri and Nevada on Saturday — as he seeks a broad victory on Tuesday.McCain pushed back with a burst of TV advertising. His aides mapped out ambitious campaign travel that sent McCain and Sarah Palin to defend states that Republicans won in 2004 and two — New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — that Democrats won last time.Still, McCain is on difficult ground. A spate of national and battleground-state polls showed Obama with a sizable lead. Much of the last-minute spending by McCain was in states that just two months ago Republicans believed to be safely in their column. They include Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia.McCain, at a rally in Virginia, on Saturday, left no doubt how important he viewed the battle in the state. “Let me state the obvious again: We need to win Virginia on the 4th of November,” McCain said. McCain’s and Palin’s weekend stops have been mainly in states that President Bush won four years ago: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio.Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said he was confident of victory in every state the Democrats won in 2004, allowing Obama to put all his closing effort into keeping McCain on the defensive.The latest New York Times electoral map puts five states in the tossup category: Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Bush won all those states in 2004. According to the Times count, another five states that went with Bush in 2004 — Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and Virginia — were leaning toward Obama going into the weekend.
