Obama, Republicans offer clashing views as US election day nears

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (AP): President Barack Obama and Republicans offered clashing views about America's trajectory in the final weekend before an election in which control of Congress and 36 governorships will be at stake.
Obama emphasised economic growth during his tenure while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell depicted events he says seem to be spinning out the White House's control.
Republicans were hoping to gain the six Senate seats needed to come away with the biggest prize in Tuesday's election - control of both chambers of Congress during Obama's final two years in office, which would give them more power to thwart his legislative agenda and block key nominations. The party is all but certain to hold its majority and even gain seats in the House of Representatives.
Democrats are at a disadvantage in the Senate contest because they have to defend seats in a number of states carried by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, including Montana, West Virginia, South Dakota, Arkansas, Alaska and North Carolina.
But with just three days remaining before Tuesday's election, an unusually high number of Senate races remain too close to call - with polls showing 10 states in which the candidates are separated by 5 percentage points or less. Georgia and Louisiana both require runoffs if no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote, raising the possibility that the Senate majority might not be decided for weeks.
The partisan sparring heading into Tuesday's voting underscored the prominent role that Obama has taken in the elections at the midpoint of his second term even though he is not on the ballot. Republicans have tried to make the election about the president, especially in states carried by Romney where Obama's unpopularity runs deeper than in the country as a whole.
While many Democratic candidates have sought to distance themselves from the president by criticizing his leadership and avoiding appearing with him, Obama has been enlisted to mobilize core Democratic voters either through campaign rallies over the last week or less overtly through targeted radio ads, mail and Internet messages.