Another one of Mr. Biden's fans from a few days ago. (Photo: Getty)

Vice President Joe Biden, fresh off voting for himself in Delaware, returned to the pivotal battleground state of Ohio this afternoon to do a final round of campaign stops before polls close. And, true to form, Mr. Biden seemed to be having fun.

Approaching a booth at a Greek diner in Cleveland, Mr. Biden apologized for causing a commotion, jesting diners just came to get some spaghetti, "and Joe Biden shows up."

Next, the vice president met, according to a pool report, "the number one Biden superfan." The supporter, "struggling to contain excitement," offered Mr. Biden her food before chanting, “Biden! Biden!"

Another women walked up to him to inquire if he might run for the White House himself in four years, a possibility Mr. Biden seemingly hinted at after voting in Delaware earlier today when he said he didn't expect it would be the last time he cast a ballot for himself.

"I'm going to ask you one question, Mr. Biden. After Obama wins this election, are you going to run?" she asked.

This time, Mr. Biden downplayed speculation he might mount a presidential bid in 2016.

"Oh, I'm going to go back home and run for county council or something," he quipped.

The Obama campaign's cat meme mailer.

The Obama campaign is using a mailer modeled after online cat memes as part of their final get out the vote push in the crucial battleground state of Ohio. On the mailer, there is a picture of a cat peeking out from behind a laptop decorated with Ohio-themed Obama campaign stickers highlighting the push to get people to vote early.

"STOP LOOKING AT CATS ONLINE AND GO VOTE," text on the flyer says.

A user on the social news site Reddit with the handle MollyBloom11 posted a picture of the mailer on the site last night. They were clearly impressed with the campaign's understanding of internet culture.

"The Obama campaign sent me this today...They know their audience," MollyBloom11 wrote.

The Obama campaign confirmed the mailer was real and has been used in Ohio. They were not immediately sure whether similar imaging has been used for online ads or in other states.

(Photo: Getty)

For presidential contests, Ohio is important. Every politico knows that.

This year's race between President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney is proving to be no exception. Just a couple days ago, The New York Times’s widely respected number-cruncher Nate Silver released an analysis giving Ohio a 50-50 chance of deciding the next occupant of the White House.

With all eyes on Ohio, President Obama seems to be ahead in the potentially decisive battle for the Buckeye State. In an article today, Mr. Silver noted Mr. Obama has held the lead in 16 Ohio polls since the first presidential debate, while Mr. Romney has led in six, with the most recent three polls showing a tie and two slight leads for Mr. Obama. The wider of the two was a 5-point margin from a Time magazine survey.

However, Mr. Romney's camp doesn't buy the idea they're behind in Ohio. Earlier this afternoon, they released a memo saying these indications of Mr. Obama's strength in the state just can't possibly be true, taking particular issue with the Time survey.

"The Time Magazine poll shows Governor Romney trailing by 5 points statewide, but winning Independent voters by a 53%-38% margin," the Romney campaign's national and Ohio field directors, Rich Beeson and Scott Jennings respectively, declared. "That’s just not possible. Write it down – if Mitt Romney wins independent voters by 15 points in Ohio, he’ll be the next President of the United States."

The reason why this is impossible, they explain, is because the poll has a 9-point Democratic registration edge, while, during the 2008 presidential election, the Ohioan electorate favored the Democrats by 8 points.

It should be noted when Mr. Obama's team released a memo criticizing the methodology of Gallup's polling operations, the Republican National Committee said it demonstrated the "panicked" nature of the Democratic position.

View the Romney campaign's polling memo below:

Joe Biden eating lunch in 2009. (Photo: Getty)

While campaigning this afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden stopped by Schmucker's Restaurant in Toledo, Ohio for a piece of pie. However, Mr. Biden may have gotten more than he bargained for at the restaurant. While he was eating, Mr. Biden found himself in conversation with another patron who was clearly eager to see the vice president and his running mate, President Barack Obama, lose the election and leave the White House. 

According to the press pool report by Politico's Donovan Slack, Mr. Biden encountered the man at the restaurant's bar after he was served a piece of "classic custard pie." Ms. Slack was able to eavesdrop on a bit of Mr. Biden's conversation with the other man and initially thought it was a friendly chat because she overheard the man say, "You're a good guy, Joe." However, afterwards, when Ms. Slack spoke to the man, who declined to give his name, it was clear his words to the vice president weren't all kind.

"Before that, I told him to enjoy his last couple of months," the man said, adding, "Just because you're a good guy doesn't mean you're a good vice president."

Ms. Slack noted that, following the encounter, Mr. Biden "understandably took his piece of pie" and sat down at another table to eat. Perhaps the sweet custard pie helped the criticism go down a bit easier.

Joe Biden (Photo: Getty)

Joe Biden has spent the past few days hitting the campaign trail for President Barack Obama and, as usual, his stops have been filled with many memorable moments and quotes. Today, Mr. Biden was in Ohio where he visited a fire department in Parma Heights along with his daughter, Ashley, and former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. Though the pool reporter, Politico's Donovan Slack, said he "had a hard time hearing many of the exchanges" Mr. Biden had with the people who came out to meet him, Ms. Slack managed to eavesdrop on the vice president giving a little dating advice to a fireman and his pre-teen daughter. 

According to the pool report, Jerry Miluk was one of "about a dozen firefighters" who came out to meet Mr. Biden. Mr. Miluk was accompanied by his son and daughter, who Ms. Slack described as "a boy of about 8 or 9 and a pre-teen girl of about 11 or 12." After working the rope line, Mr. Biden apparently "threw his arm around" the children and called Mr. Miluk over to chat.

"I hope you've got a big fence around your house," Mr. Biden said while smiling at the young girl. He then addressed the young girl directly saying, "No serious dates until you're 30."

After dispensing with his dating advice, Mr. Biden had one more interesting exchange before he asked the crowd to vote for President Obama. Mr. Biden was greeted by a woman who said she serves on the local council. Upon hearing this, Mr. Biden explained to her why he ran for Senate instead of pursuing a career in local politics.

"I ran for the Senate because the council was just too hard a job," Mr. Biden said. "They know where you live."

Mitt Romney. (Photo: Getty)

In multiple recent appearances, Mitt Romney has been discussing his personal tie to Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL who was killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya last month.He brought up the story again at a rally in Ohio this afternoon in spite of the fact the man's mother gave an interview to WHDH TV in Boston in which she expressed her wish that Mr. Romney stop discussing her son on the campaign trail.

"I don't trust Romney. He shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda. It's wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” Barbara Doherty said of Mr. Romney's speeches mentioning her son.

Mr. Romney met Mr. Doherty at a Christmas party in Southern California in either 2009 or 2010, the candidate has said he can't remember the exact year. Soon after the attack in Libya, Mr. Romney said he realized one of the ex-Navy SEALs who died while providing security at the consulate was the same man he met at the party.

"You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALs killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11," Mr. Romney said at a recent rally in Iowa. "It touched me obviously as I recognized this young man that I thought was so impressive had lost his life in his service of his fellow men and women."

In addition to today's event in Ohio and the rally in Iowa, Mr. Romney has previously brought up his connection to Mr. Doherty at campaign stops in Florida and Virginia. The story is a personal way for Mr. Romney to touch on the incident in Libya and the Obama administration has drawn criticism for their handling of the attacks from the Romney campaign and other conservatives.

Politicker reached out to the Romney campaign after today's event in Ohio to ask whether Mr. Romney was aware of Ms. Doherty's wishes prior to his speech today and if he plans to continue telling the story in light of her concerns. As of this writing, we have yet to receive a response.

Update (2:29 p.m.): The Romney campaign responded to our inquiries and said it will "respect the wishes of Mrs. Doherty" and remove any mentions of her son from future speeches. 

Big Bird on the streets of Manhattan in 2009. (Photo: Getty)

Team Romney has decried Democrats' repeated mentions of Big Bird since Mitt Romney brought up the beloved muppet while declaring his intention to end the federal subsidy for PBS during last week's presidential debate, but the Obama campaign shows no sign that they intend to stop invoking Sesame Street any time soon. In fact, at an Obama rally at Ohio State University this afternoon, rapper will.i.am performed a rendition of the theme song of the popular children's television show to rile up the president's supporters. 

According to Politico reporter Reid Epstein, who was on the scene at the Ohio State rally, will.i.am's Sesame Street stylings may not have had the desired effect.

"Much, much more enthusiasm when @iamwill plays Journey than for the Sesame Street theme song," Mr. Epstein wrote on Twitter.

Based on his other tweets from the event, Mr. Epstein clearly wasn't impressed with will.i.am's performance.

"So what is will.i.am 's talent again?" he asked.

will.i.am also made music for the president during the 2008 election. In February of that year he released a song, "Yes We Can," with lyrics based on one of Mr. Obama's campaign speeches. That song seems to have gone over much better than his performance today. The star-studded "Yes We Can" video, which featured appearances from a slew of celebrities including; Scarlett Johansson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Nick Cannon and John Legend went on to be seen by more than 24 million people on YouTube.

This morning, the Obama campaign released a web video mocking Mr. Romney for threatening to cut funding to PBS and take Big Bird off the air. Sesame Workshop, the foundation that creates the kids' show, responded with a two-sentence statement asking the Obama to remove the ad on the grounds they are "a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization" that doesn't "endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns."

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One this afternoon, President Obama's campaign press secretary, Jen Psaki, said they are "reviewing" that request. She also addressed the Romney campaign's criticism that the Big Bird attack is exactly the kind of "small" tactic President Obama denounced in 2008. Ms. Psaki insisted the president's focus throughout this campaign has been on "serious issues."

"You've been out with the President the last few days, all of you have been. And 99 percent of his remarks are about his plans for fighting for the middle class, his plans for making sure that young people have the opportunity to go to college, to have access to affordable health care.," said Ms. Psaki. "You heard him last night and you'll hear him again today lay out the difference between his view on Iraq and the right steps we took in drawing down troops there, and Mitt Romney's doubling down on maybe we should have left troops...several thousand troops in Iraq, instead of what the President's approach was. This election is about serious issues.  That's what the President talks about every day."

Ohio's state seal. (Photo: Wikipedia)

With both presidential candidates campaigning in Ohio today, three new polls show the race has reached a statistical deadheat in the battleground Buckeye State. Ohio is of paramount importance because the state awards 18 electoral votes to the election winner, which is second only to Florida's 29 electoral votes among the nine swing states in this year's campaign.

One of the three new Ohio polls, which was conducted by American Research Group, Inc. from October 5 through yesterday shows Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama 48 percent to 47 percent. That poll has a four percent margin of error and found just four percent of Ohio voters are undecided and just one percent will vote for third party candidates.

President Obama is ahead in both of the other new polls, but they are also within the margin of error.

A poll conducted by an NBC affiliate in Columbus found the president ahead of Mr. Romney 45 percent to 44 percent. That poll, which had a 3.5 percent margin of error found eight percent of Ohio voters remain undecided and three percent will be voting for third party candidates. The third new Ohio poll was conducted by CNN and ORC International between October 5 and October 8. It found President Obama leading Mr. Romney in Ohio 51 percent to 47 percent with a 3.5 percent margin of error. In that poll, just one percent of voters said they would choose other candidates and another one percent said they remain undecided.

Last Wednesday, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said he believes Mr. Romney will "crush" President Obama in Ohio. However, the Obama campaign has said they fully expected the wide lead the president was enjoying in Ohio polls before the debates to diminish. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One yesterday, President Obama's campaign press secretary Jen Psaki noted "we’ve long said long before the debate that we expected the race to tighten."

Reince Priebus. (Photo: Twitter)

This morning, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus held a press conference call to discuss Vice President Joe Biden's comment that middle-class Americans have been "buried the last four years." He also talked about his view that, despite poor poll numbers in the swing states, Mitt Romney has a path to winning the 270 electoral college votes necessary to defeat President Barack Obama, and he gave the RNC's take on footage of an old speech by the president that resurfaced on conservative media outlets last night.

Mr. Priebus said he agreed with Vice President Biden that the middle class has been "buried" during the first four years of the Obama administration.

"Obama and Biden have buried the middle class, and now they want to bury them some more," said Mr. Priebus. "I mean, just imagine what Barack Obama would do. He buried us economically in this country knowing that he would have to face re-election. Just imagine what he would do with nothing but daylight in front of him. Just imagine where this economy would go."

He went on to discuss Mr. Romney's economic policies, which he said would improve the country's financial situation.

"Getting our economy back on track, getting Obamacare off the books, reducing spending in Washington, cutting small business taxes, getting Keystone pipeline started and exploring energy across America is just the start. And that's the Romney/Ryan plan to save this country today," said Mr. Priebus. "We need a new direction. Joe Biden admits it, the American people know it and, thankfully, Mitt Romney has a plan to take us there."

Polls have increasingly been showing President Obama pulling ahead, specifically in Ohio. However, Mr. Priebus said he believes the Buckeye State is "extremely close." He's also confident the GOP has the ground game necessary to get a win for Mr. Romney.

"That's the one thing that I think that is a narrative out there that I just think is blatantly uninformed, which is the fact that the Democrats have this great ground game. I think we're going to crush the Democrats on the ground," Mr. Priebus said. "I just don't think they've got a very good ground game. I've looked through it, I've seen it. It's all smoke and mirrors. It's a lot of talk, but when you go around the neighborhood and you look at who's getting absentee ballots in the municipal clerks' offices and you figure out who's hitting their goals, in our case, we've got a sophisticated program around our GOP universe and we check that every single morning with municipal clerks' offices that are hooked up to our system. And I just know that we're better than them on the ground, and I think that we're going to crush them in Ohio."

Ohio isn't the only state Mr. Priebus is optimistic about.

"We have other good things going for us right now as well: Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada. There are other places that we're doing very well in that, quite frankly, we didn't win in ’08 but we're doing better this year," he said. "So, we'll wait and see. We've got it all on the table. Ohio is, of course, extremely important. It's nothing new, but I also see avenues to 270 opening up for Mitt Romney in places that weren't there in ’08."

Mr. Priebus concluded the call by answering a question about a video of a speech President Obama made at Hampton University in 2007 in which he acknowledged the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright and criticized the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina as evidence of racism. The speech was covered by the media when it first occurred, but it was heavily hyped last night by Fox News and the conservative websites Drudge Report and The Daily Caller, which argued it "escaped scrutiny" in 2007. The DNC sent an email last night describing the resurfacing of the video as "lame" and "desperation tactics." For his part, Mr. Priebus said he believes "people are going to draw their own conclusions from the video."

"Clearly, I know that some people are pretty troubled by it, but, you know, the fact of the matter is people have to watch that video on their own and draw their own conclusions," he said. "I think that President Obama's views shape his policies and his policies, in turn, are having a very negative impact on our economy. I don't believe that government is the solution to our problems in this country. I think free enterprise is the solution to the problems in our country. I don't think handouts are the solution to our problems in this country."

The Delta Tau Delta logo. (Photo: MiamiUDelts.com)

During his time at Miami University in Ohio, Mitt Romney's newly-minted running mate, Paul Ryan, was a member of the Gamma Upsilon chapter of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Joseph Gorman, the sergeant at arms of Miami's Delta Tau Delta chapter, spoke to The Politicker about how the fraternity's current members are reacting to the news of Mr. Ryan's selection.

"It's definitely positive for Greek life on Miami's campus," said Mr. Gorman. "It pushes the opportunity to see Greek life as a positive thing."

Mr. Gorman also said the Delta Tau Delta brothers are expecting Mr. Ryan to visit their frat house, which is known as "The Shelter," sometime soon.

"I hear that he may come back very soon since he's been chosen for this." said Mr. Gorman.

Last night, when the early reports of Mr. Ryan's selection came out, Mr. Gorman said the brothers of Delta Tau Delta discussed the news together on Twitter. Though Mr. Gorman characterized the fraternity as including members with a wide array of political views, he said they're all excited to see an alum on a presidential ticket.

"I think we're decently diverse," Mr. Gorman said. "But all of us are certainly excited for his candidacy. I am certainly a supporter of him."

According to Mr. Gorman, Delta Tau Delta and Mr. Ryan both share a "very Midwest character." He also said the frat has a very strong reputation on Miami's campus.

"We have a very great reputation and I don't think that there's any sort of negative outlook on us at all," said Mr. Gorman.

We asked Mr. Gorman whether Delta Tau Delta lore contained any tales of Mr. Ryan engaging in any legendary pranks or particularly epic partying. He said he wasn't aware of any wild fraternity stories in the candidate's past.

"I think he was was, not to pull any puns, but I think he was more conservative," Mr. Gorman said.