Despite small-but-hardening poll leads for his rival, especially in the most crucial battlegrounds, Mr Romney insisted that victory remains his "destiny".
The investigations into the deal became the battleground where Mr Mbeki and his then-deputy Mr Zuma slugged it out.
Discontent may now boil over.Congress, too, will be a battleground for Mr Toledo.
He cites demographic studies showing that, in key battleground states, Mr Romney did badly by losing "Reagan Democrats".
It is less clear what rights, if any, he secured over the management of key public services such as health and education, which were to become a battleground with Mr Blair.
On the final day of the election, millions turned out in the sacred city of Varanasi, a key battleground, where Mr Modi is being challenged by anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal.
"He understands the distinction between the Northeast and the Southwest, and he understands that central Ohio is a battleground," Mr. Portman said.
In Ohio, the state that strategists for Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush view as perhaps the most critical battleground, Mr. Kerry has yet to hire a state director or open a campaign office.
In a speech in the heart of Ohio, a major general election battleground, Mr. McCain set forth a sweeping, extraordinarily positive vision of what the world would look like in 2013, when, he said, he would have been in the White House for four years.
Last time round, George Bush won by six points—one of his widest majorities among this year's battleground states.Yet Mr Bush is vulnerable.
A chessboard is a battleground, but as Mrs Gresser pointed out, it is, at one level, a battle between the sexes, in which the female has an advantage.
