VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — With the clock running down to the 100-hour mark before the election, Barack Obama sprinted through three battleground states yesterday as John McCain kept his singular focus on one critical to his campaign.

Obama hit Florida and Virginia during the day and a late-evening rally in Columbia, Mo., while McCain kept his focus squarely on the battleground of battlegrounds, Ohio.

Both presidential hopefuls continued to zero in on the economy, the sole issue that has come to dominate the final weeks of the campaign.

"We're going to create millions of new jobs and get this country out of the ditch," McCain promised, castigating Obama for wanting to spend more money and raise taxes.

With his front-runner bid on cruise control, Obama filled his speeches with car analogies tied to a new ad his campaign launched that suggests voters should look through a "rearview mirror" to see how McCain would handle economic matters.

The Illinois Democrat told an audience of about 10,000 here that McCain had "sat shotgun" with President Bush during the past eight years, supporting policies that have hurt the economy.

Obama told an audience of about 13,000 during an earlier stop in Sarasota, Fla., that the nation's economy is shrinking because of Republican leadership.

As Obama jetted from state to state, McCain blanketed rural Ohio by bus, moving west to east along Lake Erie.

It was the first of a two-day mission that has McCain devoting his most precious resource — his own time — to the state.

McCain's campaign was buoyed by news that polls showed him closing the gap in Pennsylvania, a blue state that could help the Republican win if he also holds onto states that voted for Bush in 2004.

"We're still fighting. We're still behind. We still think we've got plenty of time to close the gap," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said, adding that McCain is making gains among suburban men and Hispanics.

McCain used a new report about record oil company profits to remind voters that Obama's campaign position is at odds with his votes for tax breaks for the industry.

In the town square of Sandusky, he was joined by "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, whom McCain has sought to use to try to project concerns about Obama's tax plans in relation to small businesses. He stood on stage with McCain and urged voters "to take their government back." He stayed with McCain through the rest of the day.