With time dwindling until Election Day, major presidential candidates offered closing arguments concerning their support and reaffirmed Iowa’s importance in a flurry of campaign stops.

On Saturday, Democratic challenger John Kerry held a rally in Des Moines, where he told a crowd of more than 5,000 supporters that it was time to bring common-sense decisions back to the White House. In the same day, Vice President Dick Cheney made a stop in Fort Dodge, where he criticized Kerry as an opportunist.

The weekend saw another visit from Cheney, as well as two visits from President Bush and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

In every visit, the close divide between voters was emphasized, although both sides were confident the election would swing to their sides. During a visit to Des Moines, Bush said he expects an Iowa win for Republicans.

“With your help, with your hard work, by turning out the vote, there is no doubt in my mind we will carry Iowa and win a great victory on Tuesday,” Bush said.

Earlier in the day, Edwards made a brief visit to a Democratic Party office in Des Moines to thank volunteers and to reassure them their efforts would help bring the Kerry-Edwards ticket to the White House. “Tomorrow, Iowa’s going to send John Kerry into the White House, and all of us together,” Edwards said.

Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of John Kerry, made a similar visit to the Story County Democrats office in Ames on Sunday.

According to recent polls, Iowa is still in a statistical dead heat. Polls released on Monday revealed conflicting results. Results from a poll by Zogby International showed Kerry with a 6-point lead among likely voters. The poll had a 4-point margin of error.

Another poll by Fox News showed Bush with a 4-point lead, with a 3-point margin of error. A Des Moines Register poll showed Kerry ahead of Bush, 48 to 45 percentage points. Other polls released around the same time show the president leading by a narrow margin of a percentage point or less.

Iowa is one of 10 toss-up states left and has been the tightest race of any of them.

With the election coming down to such few states and fewer undecided voters, the candidates have been working to get out the last of their stops in hopes of pushing supporters to show up on Tuesday.

During the visit to Des Moines Monday, Bush urged supporters and independents to “come stand with me.” Bush said his Democratic challenger lacked direction and could not take a stance on any issues.

“The American president must lead with clarity and purpose,” he said. “The role of the president is not to follow the path of the latest polls. The role of the president is to lead based upon principle and conviction and conscience.”

At a rally in Des Moines on Saturday, Kerry attacked the president’s policies as being out of touch with regular citizens. During the speech, Kerry reiterated running mate Edwards’ theme of two Americas. “It’s not about me. It’s not about George Bush. It’s about two different visions of how we achieve what we need to achieve in this country,” he said. “The one thing he’s said ‘yes’ to is to big tax breaks for the powerful and consistently has allowed the gap to grow between the haves and the have-nots in America.