Obama, Romney add four more Colorado events this weekend

DENVER — In yet another sign that both presidential campaigns are fighting hard for Colorado and its nine electoral votes, four events in the state have been added to the candidates’ schedules for this weekend, all announced Wednesday over the course of three hours.

President Barack Obama, already set to stump in Boulder Thursday, will return to Colorado on Sunday for a rally in Aurora, FOX31 Denver is first to report.

That event was announced just hours after the Obama campaign added an event featuring Vice President Joe Biden, who will campaign in Pueblo Saturday.

The event will take place at Pueblo Central High School, where doors will open at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Later that night, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will rally supporters at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater in Arapahoe County in what appears to be his final Colorado appearance of the campaign.

His campaign announced Wednesday afternoon that Romney and his wife, Ann, will also campaign Saturday afternoon in Colorado Springs.

And Paul Ryan, who will campaign in Greeley Thursday, will now return to Colorado Friday for a rally in Montrose, the Romney campaign announced Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton held two rallies for Obama at high schools in the Denver metro area while Obama was forced to cancel campaign events through Wednesday due to the storm that devastated thousands along the northeast’s Atlantic coast.

Both campaigns predicting a win

With the president set to return to the campaign trail Thursday, both sides are jockeying for position and spinning the media like mad at the outset of the final five-day sprint to Election Day.

On a conference call Wednesday morning, Obama’s top advisers laughed off the Romney campaign’s contention that traditional Democratic states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota are in play.

Senior adviser David Axelrod even said he’s shave his mustache if Romney won any of those three states.

By afternoon, Romney’s top advisers held their own conference call on the state of the race, contending that they’re going to win, despite polls showing an uphill climb for the GOP ticket.

“Right now, their firewall is burning,” said Romney political director Rich Beeson, referring to Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin.

One poll of Wisconsin released Wednesday showed Obama leading Romney there by eight points, while five new surveys of Ohio voters showed Obama leading across the board, by two points in three of the polls and by five points in two others.

In Colorado, the GOP’s consistent edge in early voting — Republicans have turned in 38 percent of 1.1 million ballots thus far, compared to the 35 percent sent back by Democrats — led Beeson to contend that Romney was on his way to victory here.

“In Colorado, there’s a — they need to win early in absentee by a decent margin,” Beeson said. “Right now we’re actually ahead in the early and absentee by a few points. And we will win Election Day turnout by double digits. So unless in the next few days they can close that gap in Colorado, Colorado looks to be slipping away from them as well.”

The GOP’s three point advantage at this point in the election marks a five point shift from 2008, when Democrats were up two points at the same point in the election and Obama was on his way to a nine point win over McCain in Colorado and a national electoral landslide.

Democrats don’t expect to replicate Obama’s 2008 performance, but point to 2010 early voting numbers as a sign they’re on the road to victory again.

“The only thing slipping away is the Romney camp’s grasp with reality,” said Michael Amodeo, the Obama campaign’s Colorado spokesman. “The truth is Democrats are doing better in early voting this year than two years ago when we swept the U.S. Senate and governor’s races in Colorado.”

Two years ago, Republicans held a six-point lead in early voting within a week of the election, but Sen. Michael Bennet managed to eke out a narrow victory over Republican Ken Buck.

“With six days left, President Obama has the math and Romney has the myth,” Amodeo continued. “We’ve been building our historic ground game for years and it’s going to help us win this election. Romney is down everywhere he needs to be up, and all he has left is desperation and dishonesty.”