Obama has flurry of interviews

CLEVELAND, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama entered the final lap before Tuesday's balloting with a round of interviews.

Obama was closeted at the White House Monday doing local radio interviews with hosts in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Philadelphia. In the afternoon, interviews were scheduled with hosts in Honolulu and Miami along with a live interview with talk show host Michael Baisden and taped interviews to be aired Tuesday with Ryan Seacrest, Russ Parr and Steve Harvey, the White House said.

On the evening agenda were morale-boosting calls to activists and party organizers in such battleground states as Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Obama's native Hawaii.

Obama spent the weekend on the campaign trail, teaming up Sunday with Vice President Joe Biden to boost Democratic candidates in Ohio.

The president hammered away at his common themes of supporting the middle class, rebuilding the country's infrastructure, helping small businesses and making the United States No. 1 in education.

Addressing a "Moving America Forward" rally at Cleveland State University in Cleveland Sunday, Biden stressed the need to get the vote out like Democrats did in 2008 to re-elect Gov. Ted Strickland in his race against John Kasich and put Lee Fisher over the top in his race against Rob Portman for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by George Voinovich.