Barack Obama's White House campaign has hammered Republican John McCain for wanting to turn the page on the US economic crisis and engage in low-blow personal attacks a month away from election day.
The Democrat hit back with a new television spot after McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, accused Obama of consorting with terrorists in an attack on his ties in Chicago to former anti-Vietnam war militant William Ayers.
Meanwhile, new polling shows John McCain with a narrow 48-42 lead in the suburbs, but it may not be enough to overcome Barack Obama's dominance in urban areas.
"The suburbs are a major battleground," said Evans Witt, CEO of Princeton Research Associates, explaining the findings of a survey conducted for the National Centre for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, not far from Levittown, Long Island's iconic post-war suburb.
McCain's edge in rural areas is far wider, 51-35. But Obama holds a 57-34 lead in the cities - a pattern seen from northern Virginia to North Texas to the fringes of Denver. Suburbs have seen explosive growth for years.
Immigration is a key engine, and newcomers and their offspring tend to vote for Democrats.
"This election, maybe the Republicans can still hold on," said Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, and a leading expert on suburban politics. "There are still a lot of white couples with kids in the suburbs."
Dallas and its environs provide a case study.
Lang noted that Senator John Kerry came close to beating President Bush in Dallas County, Texas, in 2004, though that wasn't nearly enough to overcome the Bush strength in outlying areas.
"He almost beat the former governor," Lang said, noting that when Bush returns to Dallas after handing over the keys to Air Force One, he'll find it far bluer than when he moved away.
"There's no chance Obama will lose Dallas County in this election. That's just the reality."
Meanwhile, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called Republican presidential candidate John McCain not a maverick but a "mimic" of President George W Bush.
Clinton made the remarks at a Human Rights Campaign dinner, where she was filling in for Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Barack Obama's running mate cancelled his weekend campaign events because his wife's mother is ill.
Clinton spoke by satellite from Los Angeles to a few thousand people who attended the national gay rights group's event.
Rather than sharing her thoughts, she said, "I want to share with you the eloquent remarks that Joe had prepared."
Clinton, who has stepped in as a surrogate for Obama after a hard-fought primary campaign, sought to tie McCain to Bush, saying the Arizona senator offered voters "more of the same".
"He's not a maverick. He's a mimic," she said.
She noted that McCain does not support extending job discrimination and hate-crimes laws to cover sexual orientation and supports the military's policy of discharging anyone who is openly gay.
Clinton said Americans can choose in the November election whether the nation takes steps toward "securing equality and dignity for all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity".
"Or we can choose four more years of the same failed policies, four more years of the same small-minded governance, four more years that look just like the last eight," she added.
