MIAMI – The presidential candidates are capping a history-making campaign with a dash from Florida through a half-dozen other crucial states as John McCain tries for an upset over Barack Obama.

With little sleep, McCain was darting through seven swing states Monday, arguing that victory was virtually at hand despite national polls showing otherwise.

"My friends, it's official: There's just one day left until we take America in a new direction," the Republican Party's choice to succeed President Bush told a raucous, heavily Hispanic rally in Miami just after midnight.

Obama, comfortably ahead in national polls, was getting a later start with a rally in Jacksonville at midday and a swing through longtime GOP bastions that might go to his Democratic Party this time.

"I feel pretty peaceful," Obama said on the "Russ Parr Morning Show."

"The question is going to be who wants it more," he added. "And I hope that our supporters want it bad, because I think the country needs it."

It has been the longest and most expensive presidential contest ever — featuring for the first time an African-American as a major party standardbearer.

Asked in an interview broadcast Monday morning what most displeased him about the nearly 2-year-long contest, Obama cited attacks launched by Republicans against his wife, Michelle.

"There's a Republican or right wing media outlet ... that went after my wife for awhile in a way that I thought was just completely out of bounds," Obama said on CBS's "The Early Show."

"I would have never considered or expected my allies to do something comparable to the spouse of an opponent," he added. "They support their spouse, but generally they really should be bystanders in this process, even if they're campaigning for me. ... I mean that's what you'd expect. And that doesn't make them suddenly targets."

All that's left now is for the campaigns to make sure people vote, unleashing an unprecedented get-out-the-vote campaigns.

Surrogates for both men, including Democrat Caroline Kennedy and one-time Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, hopped from morning show to morning show urging voters to get to the polls if they haven't already cast ballots. More early voting is happening than ever, a process that changes the meaning of Election Day somewhat, with some 27 million votes cast in 30 states as of Saturday night. That's more than ever. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in pre-Election Day voting in key states. political desk

While in some previous elections the incumbent president has served as surrogate-in-chief, Bush is so unpopular that he hasn't been seen in public, except for climbing on and off helicopters, since a Thursday speech at the FBI Academy. And that won't change until after Election Day. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the incumbent's invisibility is by design — because "the Republican Party wanted to make this election about John McCain" — and even understandable.

"We're realistic about the political environment that we are in," Perino said. "I'm not saying that he doesn't recognize that there are people out there who want change, they've been looking for something new. ... What keeps him going is knowing that he's done the right thing."

All told, the election will have cost $1 billion, and the candidates together will have spent about $8 per presidential vote.

The candidates were sprinting across time zones and states in eleventh-hour bids to get to the magic number of 270 electoral votes — the total needed to seal the presidency.

McCain's journey stretched from Tampa through Tennessee, whose media market reaches into the much-coveted state of Virginia, which is trending Democratic for the first time since 1964.

McCain also was scheduled to hit Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada before ending early Tuesday with a rally in Prescott, Ariz. He was scheduled to finish the day — and the campaign — at home in the Phoenix area.

Obama was set to make a quick trip to Virginia and Indiana before returning to Chicago for a massive rally in Grant Park.

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

Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, was to campaign in Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Polls show the six closest states are Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio. The campaigns also are running aggressive ground games elsewhere, including Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia.

Obama exuded confidence Sunday at events in three cities in the bellwether state of Ohio, which voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 but is trending Democratic this year as it struggles against an anemic economy.

"We cannot afford to slow down or sit back or let up," Obama told voters at an evening rally in Cincinnati. "We need to win an election on Tuesday."

In New Hampshire, McCain held his last town hall meeting of the 2008 campaign — something of an exercise in nostalgia, as he conducted dozens of such freewheeling affairs in the months leading up to his victory in that state's primary.

McCain took voter questions on issues like illegal immigration and paying for college while thanking New Hampshire for rescuing his campaign in 2008 and in the 2000 Republican primary, when he briefly upended George W. Bush.

"I come to the people of New Hampshire to ask them to let me go on one more mission," McCain said in Peterborough, where he was introduced by Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

_{WASHINGTON – His storied election behind him and weighty problems in his face, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to the task of building an administration in times of crisis as Americans and the world absorbed his history-shattering achievement as the first black leader ascending to the presidency.}

_{Obama enjoyed an everyman day-after in his hometown of Chicago on Wednesday after an electric night of celebration, anchored by his victory rally of 125,000 in Chicago and joyful outpourings of his supporters across the country. The president-elect saw his two young daughters off to school, a simple pleasure he's missed during nearly two years of virtually nonstop travel, then had a gym workout.}

_{Pressing business came at him fast, with just 76 days until his inauguration as the 44th president.}

_{The nation's top intelligence officials planned to give him top-secret daily briefings starting Thursday, sharing with him the most critical overnight intelligence as well as other information he has not been allowed to see as a senator or candidate. And Obama planned to give the first of his daily briefings to the media on Thursday as he moves quickly to begin assembling a White House staff and selecting Cabinet nominees.}

_{Obama was asking Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, former political and policy adviser to President Clinton, to be his White House chief of staff, Democratic officials said. John Podesta, who served as Clinton's chief of staff, was expected to join Obama Senate aide Pete Rouse and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett in leading the transition team.}

_{President Bush pledged "complete cooperation" in the transition and called Obama's victory a "triumph of the American story."}

_{Naming the staggering list of problems he inherits in his decisive defeat of Republican John McCain — two wars and "the worst financial crisis in a century," among them — Obama sought to restrain the soaring expectations of his supporters late Tuesday night even as he stoked them with impassioned calls for national unity and partisan healing.}

_{"We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."}

_{Helping him to get there will be a strengthened Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. When Obama becomes the president on Jan. 20, with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his vice president, Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.}

_{A tide of international goodwill came Obama's way on Wednesday morning, even as developments made clear how heavy a weight will soon be on his shoulders.}

_{Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a congratulatory telegram saying there is "solid positive potential" for the election to improve strained relations between Washington and Moscow, if Obama engages in constructive dialogue.}

_{Yet he appeared to be deliberately provocative hours after the election with sharp criticism of the U.S. and his announcement that Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans.}

_{In Afghanistan, where villagers said the U.S. bombed a wedding party and killed 37 people, President Hamid Karzai said: "This is my first demand of the new president of the United States — to put an end to civilian casualties."}

_{Young and charismatic but with little experience on the national level or as an executive, Obama easily defeated McCain, smashing records and remaking history along the way.}

_{Ending an improbable journey that started for Obama a long 21 months ago, he drew a record-breaking $700 million to his campaign account alone. The first African-American destined to sit in the Oval Office, he also was the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.}

_{And Obama scored an Electoral College landslide that redrew America's political dynamics. He won states that reliably voted Republican in presidential elections, such as Indiana and Virginia, which hadn't supported a Democratic candidate in 44 years. Ohio and Florida, key to President Bush's twin victories, also went for Obama, as did Pennsylvania, which McCain had deemed crucial for his election hopes.}

_{With most U.S. precincts tallied, the popular vote was 52.3 percent for Obama and 46.4 percent for McCain. But the count in the Electoral College was much more lopsided — 349 to 147 in Obama's favor as of early Wednesday, with three states still to be decided. Those were North Carolina, Georgia and Missouri.}

_{The nation awakened to the new reality at daybreak, a short night after millions witnessed Obama's election — an event so rare it could not be called a once-in-a-century happening. Prominent black leaders wept unabashedly in public, rejoicing in the elevation of one of their own, at long last.}

_{The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had made two White House bids himself, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the tears streaming down his face upon Obama's victory were about his father and grandmother and "those who paved the fights. And then that Barack's so majestic."}

_{Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and leading player in the civil rights movement with Jackson, said on NBC's "Today" show: "He's going to call on us, I believe, to sacrifice. We all must give up something."}

_{Speaking from Hong Kong, retired Gen. Colin Powell, the black Republican whose endorsement of Obama symbolized the candidate's bipartisan reach and bolstered him against charges of inexperience, called the senator's victory "a very very historic occasion." But he also predicted that Obama would be "a president for all America."}

_{On Capitol Hill, Democrats ousted incumbent GOP Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and captured seats held by retiring Republican senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado. Still, the GOP blocked a complete rout, holding the Kentucky seat of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a Mississippi seat once held by Trent Lott.}

_{The Associated Press prematurely declared incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman the winner in a race against Democratic former comedian Al Franken that by state law is subject to a recount based on the 571-vote margin. The party also held onto a Mississippi seat once held by Trent Lott.}

_{In the House, with fewer than a dozen races still undecided, Democrats captured Republican-held seats in the Northeast, South and West and were on a path to pick up as many as 20 seats.}

_{"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.}

_{After the longest and costliest campaign in U.S. history, Obama was propelled to victory by voters dismayed by eight years of Bush's presidency and deeply anxious about rising unemployment and home foreclosures and a battered stock market that has erased trillions of dollars of savings for Americans.}

_{Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation in an Associated Press exit poll. None of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was selected by more than one in 10. Obama has promised to cut taxes for most Americans, get the United States out of Iraq and expand health care, including mandatory coverage for children.}

_{McCain conceded defeat shortly after 11 p.m. EST, telling supporters outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."}

_{"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."}

_{The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, the 47-year-old Obama has had a startlingly rapid rise, from lawyer and community organizer to state legislator and U.S. senator, now not even four years into his first term.}

_{Almost six in 10 women supported Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a narrow margin, according to interviews with voters. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.}

_{The results of the AP survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.}

_{In terms of turnout, America voted in record numbers. It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate, the highest since 65.7 percent in 1908, he said.}