WEST ALLIS: To chants of "four more days," Republican Mitt Romney on Friday vowed a new beginning for America, urging voters to compare his record to President Barack Obama's.
"We are four days away from a fresh start," Romney told a raucous crowd in Wisconsin, one of several states the Republican nominee is hoping to pry away from the Obama column in an election going down to the wire on November 6.
"My conviction that better days are ahead is not based on promises and hollow rhetoric but solid plans and proven results," he said.
For months, Romney has hammered away at his rival's record, stressing the president's inability to speed up the sluggish economic recovery while touting his own achievements in business and as a Massachusetts governor.
Friday's speech less than 90 hours from election day struck an optimistic, join-our-cause tone. But Romney also attacked Obama as a hapless job-killer who doubled the federal deficit and failed to bring unemployment down much below the rate when he took office.
"Words are cheap. A record is real and earned with effort," Romney told about 4,000 people gathered in a pavilion here.
"Candidate Obama promised changed, but he could not deliver it. I promise change, and I have a record of achieving it," he said.
The incumbent and challenger are each on a final frenetic hopscotch around the nation, making 11th-hour appeals to undecided voters in key battleground states and reminding their supporters to get out and vote.
Later Friday the two rivals converge on critical toss-up state Ohio.
Among the key issues circulating in the feverish pre-election mix was Friday's jobless report, which showed the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.9 percent and the US economy adding a better-than-expected 171,000 new jobs.
In a statement Romney said the report showed the economy was at a "virtual standstill," but he didn't dwell on it in his speech.
"He said that the unemployment rate would now be 5.2 percent; today we learned that it is 7.9 percent," Romney said. "It is nine million jobs short of what he promised."
Romney touched on several of the flashpoints of the campaign: rising gas prices, trillions of dollars in debt, excessive regulation, stagnant take-home pay, and "fears that the American dream is fading away."
But in keeping with his moderating trend of recent weeks, he also stressed his own efforts at bipartisanship.
"I won't just represent one party, I'll represent one nation. I'll try to show the best of America, at a time when only our best will do," he said.
Stressing to Americans that "this is not a time to settle," Romney said Tuesday's election was a chance to "put the past four years behind us and start building a new future."
"It is America's moment of renewal and purpose and optimism," he said. "We have journeyed a long way in this great campaign for America's future. And now we are almost home."
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