Clinton stumps for Obama at the Palestra

IF A CAMPAIGN for the White House is one very long sales pitch on politics and policy, former President Bill Clinton is the Democratic Party's top closer.

President Obama left his re-election efforts in Pennsylvania in Clinton's hands Monday, one day after Republican nominee Mitt Romney packed a Bucks County rally in a last-ditch effort to win the state and the presidency.

Clinton told a raucous crowd of 9,300 young people at the Palestra in West Philly that they should encourage others to vote Tuesday because Obama needs "every last solitary person" to win Pennsylvania.

Clinton praised Obama's efforts in the last four years on the Affordable Care Act, on fair pay for female employees, on immigration reform, on the bailout of auto manufacturers and on improving access to college student loans.

He repeatedly knocked Romney for pushing "trickle-down-economics" policies that he said would hurt the middle class and increase the national debt.

The choice, Clinton said, came down to recognizing that "practical problem-solving is better than ideological extremism."

"I want you to vote your hopes and not your fears," Clinton said to cap his 31-minute speech. "I want you to imagine what America can be like 10 years from now."

Meanwhile, Obama rallied voters in Wisconsin and Iowa on Monday, and Romney visited Florida, Virginia and New Hampshire. All are regarded as election battleground states.

But the candidates didn't turn their attention to Pennsylvania's 20 Electoral College votes until last week.

Clinton's appearance in the Keystone State could also boost down-ballot Democrats, especially Kathy Boockvar, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in the suburban 8th District. The former president has recorded robo-calls for the Doylestown lawyer and stumped for her in Blue Bell, Montgomery County, earlier on Monday.

The late national attention in the Bucks County-centered district could be a wash, however, because Romney on Sunday night gave a high-profile speech to about 25,000 supporters at Lower Makefield Township's Shady Brook Farm.

Meanwhile, both presidential campaigns dumped millions of dollars into ads that amount to closing arguments focused on the economy.

Obama's message: Stay the course, and the economy will improve in his second term.

Romney's message: Stay the course, and the economy will only get worse with Obama in charge.

Romney sent former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, actor Jon Voight and other campaign surrogates to Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Conshohocken and Bethlehem to rally supporters Monday.

Giuliani also appeared on Fox News on Monday morning saying that Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy was as bad as the response to Hurricane Katrina, a 2005 storm that killed more than 1,800 people.

Romney's campaign calls the sudden interest in Pennsylvania an attempt to "expand the map" needed to reach 270 electoral votes needed for victory.

Obama's campaign claims Romney, seeing losses coming in battleground states, turned to Pennsylvania out of desperation.

Both campaigns are touting their ground games for getting voters to the polls Tuesday.

Obama's camp says it has registered 1.8 million voters in battleground states, more than double the number his campaign registered in 2008. Now volunteers will fan out from 5,117 "staging locations" in those battleground states to turn out voters.

Romney's camp emphasized their expanded effort with absentee ballots and momentum growing in support from female and independent voters - two demographics that could be key to winning the race.

- Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this report.