Barack Obama Plays Basketball, Mitt Romney Barnstorms in Ohio and Pennsylvania
The campaign may have slowed down for Election Day, but it hasn’t stopped, as both presidential contenders make their last ditch pitches to voters heading to the polls today.
After casting his ballot in Bedford, Mass., the state’s former governor and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was en route to Ohio and Pennsylvania to urge voters to head to the polls. President Barack Obama planned to spend the day close to his Chicago home conducting television and radio interviews — many with stations in swing states.
Obama, who will participate in what has become a traditional Election Day basketball game, this morning made an unscheduled stop at a small Chicago campaign field office at the corner of Harper Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard, according to pool reports. He was greeted by applause from his campaign aides and volunteers. He helped the get-out-the-vote effort by calling voters personally.
“This is Barack Obama. You know, the president?” he said, according to pool reports. “She was very nice to me even though she initially didn’t know who I was,” Obama said after the call ended.
Obama voted early in Chicago on Oct. 25, and the first lady cast her vote by mail on Oct. 15.
But like Romney, the vice presidential contenders — Joseph Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — cast their ballots today.
Biden voted at Alexis I. DuPont High School in Greenville, Del., along with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and other family members.
“Oh, I’m feeling pretty good,” Biden said after voting. When asked if this was the last time he expected to vote for himself, the vice president said with a grin, “No, I don’t think so.”
Biden then made an unannounced visit to Cleveland, Ohio, where his plane parked next to Romney’s. According to CNN, the vice president then headed over to the GOP challenger’s plane to greet Romney.
Ryan and his wife, Janna, voted this morning at the Janesville, Wis., library. They were photographed with their young children accompanying them. Ryan was then scheduled to head to campaign stops in Virginia and Ohio before meeting up with the top of the GOP ticket for an election night rally in Boston.
Obama, according to reporters traveling with him, planned to eat dinner at his home before delivering a speech at an unspecified time from Chicago’s McCormick Place.