Ann Romney says touched as US campaign winds down

NEWINGTON: With three days before the US election, Ann Romney said Saturday her campaign encounters have been humbling and touching as her husband's presidential bid reaches its rollercoaster conclusion.

The woman who would be first lady has joined Mitt Romney for the final push across multiple states as the Republican nominee offers his closing arguments for why he deserves to oust President Barack Obama from the White House.

"Three more days. It's been long," she told reporters aboard the Romney campaign plane in New Hampshire after a morning rally at the Portsmouth airport that kicked off a three-state Saturday swing.

"It's been an extraordinary experience," she said of campaigning for her husband, who is in a neck-and-neck race with the president.

Romney, clad in a bright pink jacket and polka dot blouse, stepped to the back of the plane bearing what she called "pumpkin whoopie" pastries for the traveling press.

The moment was reminiscent of a flight to the Republican National Convention in August, when she passed around a tin of Welsh cakes, scone-like treats she said she baked herself using a tweaked version of her Welsh grandmother's recipe.

Perhaps no one has been a stronger advocate for Mitt Romney than lifelong partner Ann, and she appeared to show a tinge of nostalgia Saturday for a race that was coming to a close.

"It's really humbling, it's very touching," she said of her meetings with voters on the campaign trail, many of whom tell her they struggle to make ends meet.

"To me it was very emotional when I gave my last, sort of address by myself. Because I hear the voices and the passionate people that are out there who are really, really hurting. And they are etched in my mind, in my heart, as they are with Mitt."

For months Ann Romney has sought to humanize her husband, the former governor of Massachusetts whose stiff and occasionally mechanical bearing has been criticized as a potential turn-off for voters.

But she has frequently described how moved she has been to hear from countless voters, mostly women, who confide in her about their financial troubles and their concerns about the country.

In her native state of Michigan on Thursday during one of her final addresses of the campaign, she told a crowd that it was "not too late" to save America.