"Ohio, I have just two words for you: two days," Obama said from the west lawn, as the Capitol's magnificent limestone pillars served as a backdrop and a sea of humanity faced him along State, Broad and High streets and beyond.

"In two days, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change it needs."

Poised for victory in Ohio -- a Dispatch Poll released yesterday showed him 6 percentage points ahead of GOP rival John McCain -- Obama played to massive crowds on his final day of campaigning in this battleground state.

At an afternoon rally in downtown Cleveland after a Browns loss, Obama drew what campaign officials said was an estimated 80,000 supporters. They sprawled across the lakefront mall.

In Cincinnati last night, an estimated 27,000 filled Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati, jamming into both the stands and part of the Bearcats' football field.

Although McCain has no plans to return to Ohio before the election after a two-day bus trip that concluded Friday, his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, also drew big audiences yesterday at four Ohio rallies, including one at Rickenbacker Airport.

Backed by a Columbus police estimate, Mayor Michael B. Coleman congratulated the audience for being part of "the largest crowd ever in the history of Columbus for a political event." Most people stood in the streets because security agents could not get them through metal detectors fast enough to fill fenced-in areas of the Statehouse lawn.

Threading a common theme, Coleman, Gov. Ted Strickland and Obama himself urged the audience to march across the Broad Street bridge after the rally and vote early at Veterans Memorial.

"If enough of you vote," Strickland said, "this thing can be wrapped up before the polls open on Nov. 4."

The number of early voters in Franklin County and across the state already has set records in an election in which it's been projected that 80 percent of Ohio's registered voters will cast ballots. More than 2 million of the 6.6 million Ohioans expected to vote will have done so before Tuesday.

If national polls are accurate, Obama will easily win the necessary 270 electoral votes, including Ohio's 20, to become president. Still, at all three of his Ohio stops, the Democratic nominee hammered home the need for his volunteers to keep working through Election Day.

"Don't believe for a second this election is over," he told the Columbus crowd in a 36-minute speech. "Don't think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in these last few days, because it does."

Spending his 16th day in the state since June, Obama visited Ohio's three major population centers for maximum media exposure. The Dispatch Poll showed him leading McCain in northeastern Ohio by 19 percentage points and in central Ohio by 6 points, and trailing McCain in southwestern Ohio by 14 points.

In downtown Cleveland, with the Cleveland Convention Center serving as background, Obama spoke to a crowd that stretched up the mall toward Lakeside Avenue, spilling over to the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center and the Key Bank Tower, the tallest building in Cleveland.

The campaign's crowd estimate appeared exaggerated -- all such crowd estimates are essentially impossible to confirm -- but Cleveland has routinely rounded up huge crowds for candidates. In 1960, more than 100,000 people were reported to have jammed the old Euclid Beach Park on the Lake Erie shore to hear John F. Kennedy speak during his presidential campaign against Richard Nixon.

The rally yesterday featured Bruce Springsteen singing some of his epic hits .

Four years ago, Springsteen sang on the same mall before another huge throng as Democrat John Kerry concluded his campaign.

This year, Springsteen sensed a different outcome.

"Been in Cleveland many times, but never on a day as glorious as this one," Springsteen cried out to loud cheers. "We're at the crossroads. Two more days."

The crowd roared throughout Obama's speech, particularly when he said "we don't have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end" in Iraq. "It's time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq. I will end this war."

He also assailed McCain, charging that he offers nothing more economically than "the same tired, old theory that says we should give more to billionaires, millionaires and big corporations. Those are the theories that got us into this mess."

About 10 minutes into Obama's speech, it began to rain heavily. Obama shrugged it off and went on with his speech.

It was a beautiful night in Cincinnati when Obama appeared at his last Ohio rally of the campaign, with the stadium scoreboard's main screen bearing a big, blue "Obama-Biden" logo.

Mark Kennedy, 44, of Cincinnati, waited more than five hours in line to witness what he hopes is history in the making -- a fellow African-American elected president.

"We believe he can hopefully pull it out," said Kennedy, a systems manager at a restaurant.

"He really wants change," Kennedy said. "He is not thinking only about the rich and wealthy, he is thinking about the middle class."

In his Cincinnati appearance, the crowd cheered wildly as Obama began his speech, then shifted to boos at the mention of McCain.

"You don't need to boo you just need to vote," Obama said, eliciting thunderous applause once again.

jhallet@dispatch.com

jtorry@dispatch.com

jriskind@dispatch.com

Barack Obama drew tens of thousands in rallies in Ohio's three largest population centers yesterday.