The Democratic presidential contenders have fired up their supporters in Iowa and reached out to undecided voters, hoping for a final burst of momentum to snap a four-way tie heading into the campaign's first test.
Two days before Iowa's caucuses kick off the battle to find a Democratic challenger to Republican President George W. Bush, the four leading contenders raced back and forth across the state
to motivate workers, find new voters and build turnout.
A new Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll showed Mr John Kerry, Mr Howard Dean, Mr Richard Gephardt and Mr John Edwards bunched within five percentage points of each other at the top of the field in one of the closest and most intense campaigns in the history of Iowa's caucuses.
The poll also found 11 per cent of likely caucus-goers were still undecided, leaving the door open for more movement and a final swing in momentum over the last 48 hours before tomorrow night's caucuses.
The campaigns sent thousands of volunteers into neighbourhoods across Iowa to hunt for voters and get them to the caucuses. The nature of the caucuses, in which participants gather in public to declare their support, puts a premium on organisations that find and track the most committed caucus-goers.
Mr
Gephardt, a veteran congressman from neighbouring Missouri who faces a must-win race in Iowa, rallied supporters outside a union hall in Cedar Rapids, climbing on the back of an American-made pickup truck to spread his message of job creation, expanded health care and protection from what he said were unfair trade agreements.
"You win by having the best organisation to get out your people, and I believe I have the best organisation," he said.
Mr Edwards, a North Carolina senator who has seen his campaign surge in the last week by focusing on a positive message, met with volunteers at his state headquarters in Des Moines.
Mr Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, held a reunion with former special forces soldier Mr Jim Rassman of Oregon, who he had not seen or spoken to since he rescued him in 1969. Mr Rassman called Mr Kerry headquarters on Friday and asked to help the Massachusetts senator. The two embraced in a crush of photographers in a Des Moines community centre.
Mr Dean and Mr Gephardt have battled back and forth for months for the top spot in polls in Iowa, but the late surges by Mr Edwards and Mr Kerry have scrambled the Democratic picture in what had become a bitter campaign atmosphere.
Mr Dean, the former Vermont governor, and Mr Gephardt decided on Friday to pull their harshest attack ads off the air after pounding each other over the war in Iraq and Mr Dean's past views on Medicare in a state that sometimes punishes negative campaigning.
But in Council Bluffs, Mr Dean resumed his criticism of his opponents by name for their support of the Iraq war and expressed confidence he would win on Monday. "We're not going to change America by nominating a Washington insider who's got the same ideas as everybody else," he said.
Mr Dean also has seen his lead vanish in polls in New Hampshire, which holds its primary on January 27th, in the face of an advance by retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who skipped Iowa to concentrate on New Hampshire