Last Pitches Before the First Vote

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Sights and Sounds From Final Full Day of the Iowa Campaign

Sights and sounds from an early morning rally by Hillary Clinton to a 'Tonight Show' appearance by Mike Huckabee, presidential candidates traveled across Iowa and to California in the final full day of campaigning in Iowa. All times listed in the video are Central Time.

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Obama rallied large crowds across the state with hour-long stump speeches that were partly motivational, urging people to caucus, and partly inspirational, saying he is the only Democratic candidate able to deliver the change that voters say they crave.

"They say a lot of them . . . never show up. Are you gonna prove them wrong?" Obama said to cheers from a crowd filled with young people and independent voters. "I can't hear you. Are you gonna prove them wrong?"

Wrapping up her campaigning, Clinton continued her pursuit of newcomers to the process by targeting three kinds of voters: committed supporters, precinct captains in charge of mobilizing turnout, and undecideds. The Clinton campaign said that about 40 percent of her precinct captains have either not attended caucuses in the past or have not done so in recent elections.

"You don't run for office to feed your ego, you don't run for office to get your name in the headlines, you run for office to help other people," the senator from New York told a crowd of about 1,000 in Cedar Rapids.

Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, ended 36 hours of nonstop campaigning with a rally in Des Moines on Wednesday night that featured singer John Mellencamp.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, McCain and former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) each held smaller events in the state on Wednesday, while former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani flew from Florida, where he has been campaigning, to New Hampshire. Ron Paul continued to barrage Iowans with television commercials, spending some of the $18 million he raised, mostly online. Democratic Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) and Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson campaigned vigorously, each hoping for a showing that might give them momentum to stay in the race.

In his final speeches Wednesday, Romney stuck to a script he has honed for more than three years: He argued that he has the managerial experience and a conservative philosophy that will unite the Republican Party's economic, social and foreign policy conservatives.

"I want to strengthen America. I want to strengthen our homes and our families with good health care, with great schools and great values," he said in Bettendorf. "I want to strengthen that economy by keeping our taxes down, by trading around the world on a level playing field and ending the challenge of illegal immigration, while protecting legal immigration. And I also want to strengthen our military."

In person, Romney is relentlessly positive, believing that Iowa voters want an optimistic message about the future rather than rhetoric about the challenges the country faces.

But his television commercials and interviews in the past few weeks have been sharply negative toward Huckabee's record. One ad still playing on the Iowa airwaves Wednesday accused Huckabee of not fighting methamphetamine use and of commuting or pardoning more than 1,000 criminals.

Campaigning in Mason City in northern Iowa, Huckabee told supporters that "we're on the verge of doing something really significant. I'm looking forward to being with you for a victory lap tomorrow night."

At a Tuesday night rally before the final day of campaigning, Huckabee packed more than 1,500 people into a ballroom in West Des Moines to hear from actor Chuck Norris and to see Huckabee play the bass guitar.