Defiance, Ohio ? Sen. John McCain launched a two-day bus tour of the Buckeye State on Thursday in a spot that offered a good measure of his mood as he continued his pursuit of the White House in the face of polls suggesting it is quickly slipping away from him.

His Democratic rival, meanwhile, exuded confidence as the two toured many of the same battleground states. Sen. Barack Obama is all but taking for granted states that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., won four years ago and is spending the last few days in George W. Bush country, forcing McCain to defend what was friendly territory for the GOP just four years ago.

Both men worked through 15-hour days as they moved toward the conclusion of almost two years of campaigning, their presidential ambitions fueled by a belief that Tuesday will be a turning point for the country.

“I know history. I know the last time anyone was elected president of the United States without carrying the state of Ohio was John F. Kennedy,” McCain told several thousand people who packed the town square here. “My friends, we are going to carry Ohio and we are going to win the presidency, and we need you out there working every single moment for the next five days.”

McCain’s campaign bus pulled out in below-freezing temperatures early Thursday for three outdoor rallies, the beginning of a five-day swing that advisers say will take McCain back to Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Missouri, and culminate in a six-state spree on Monday.

He campaigned with Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, who urged voters to “just get out and get informed” so they can “hold our politicians accountable and take back our government. It’s all ours.”

Obama spoke to 13,000 people in Sarasota, Fla., before flying to Virginia Beach and to Columbia, Mo., where he continued to focus on the economy on a day when government figures showed that the nation’s gross domestic product shrank in the third quarter.