With polls showing a dead-even race two days before Election Day in November 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry launched an intensive final push through key battleground states, aiming to maximize Democratic turnout and win over any remaining undecided voters before Tuesday's vote.
Kerry spent Saturday rallying crowds in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio, attacking President George W. Bush over the failure to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The criticism came one day after a new bin Laden videotape surfaced, shaking the closing stretch of the campaign. Bush called Kerry's line of attack shameful.
For Sunday, Kerry's schedule included a Baptist church visit in Ohio, intended to energize African American voters, followed by stops in New Hampshire and Florida. His final campaign day Monday was set to include a Florida rally before swings through Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Rock star Bruce Springsteen, who had already drawn roughly 150,000 attendees to three Kerry campaign events in four days, was slated to headline an election-eve rally in Cleveland.
Kerry's senior strategist Tad Devine argued the candidate was better positioned than Al Gore had been at the same point in 2000, though Bush's camp made similar confident claims, leaving the outcome widely regarded as too close to call.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.