AP Photo-Lakewood, OH

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI–-At a park in a Cleveland suburb, Sarah Palin kicked off her marathon two day sprint to the finish with a fiery speech. She expressed confidence at a come from behind win to this crowd of less than 1,000 people.

“I’ll tell ya, this is the right place to be for us to kick off this final day of campaigning. This is the right place to be. You can just feel it here, you can just feel it here in Ohio, victory’s coming, we can do this, we can win, we can win Ohio.” Palin said, “And we must win for you.”

The crowd chanted, “We will win!” and she added, “We must win!”

Although she repeated most her standard stump speech as she has over the last few days, she added her own Palin flourishes throughout her remarks in Lakewood, Ohio.

She said she was grateful that in the “eleventh hour” of the campaign that revelations were coming out about Barack Obama even enthusiastically thanking a higher power for the news.

“You would be so surprised to find out what we found out even in the last couple of days. The eleventh hour of this campaign after two years. Eleventh hour here and more and more light though–thank the Lord–more and more light is being shown on his plans and his record!”

She went on to attack Obama on his tax plan as she has throughout her candidacy.

The Alaska governor again went after the Democrats and said they want to cut the defense budget. She stuck to the usual attack until she went one step further and accused Congressional Democrats of thinking that terrorists no longer want to strike America.

“This in a time of multiple conflicts and obvious danger still to the homeland. What do they think?” Palin asked, “That the terrorists have suddenly changed their minds and no longer do they seek to destroy America and her allies and all that it is that we stand for – freedom, democracy, equal rights, tolerance all those things that we stand for? Do they think the terrorists have changed their minds?”

Palin’s next stop of her marathon two day sprint is Jefferson City, Missouri. She holds six rallies today in five states–after Missouri she will campaign in Dubuque, Iowa; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Reno, Nevada, and Elko, Nevada. In 2004, President Bush won all five states that Palin is campaigning in today.

She will then fly overnight to Alaska so she can vote in her hometown of Wasilla as soon as the polls open at 7AM. She gets right back on the plane to be able to appear next to her running mate in Phoenix as the final results are tallied.

Click below to listen to me previewing Palin’s next two days on “America’s Newsroom” this morning:

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AP photo

DES MOINES, IOWA–Sarah Palin went after Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats at a campaign rally in a high school gym in Sioux City today. As supporters shouted out “Socialist!” at the mention of Barack Obama’s name Sarah Palin clearly laid out the analogy without mentioning it outright—even comparing his economic plan to other countries “where people are not free.”

“See, under a big government agenda, what you thought was yours, your income, your property, your inventory, your investments, really would belong to somebody else, to everybody else. And it would be shared with everybody else.” Palin said, “That philosophy of government taking more, which is a misuse of the power to tax. It leads to government moving into the role of taking care of you and government and politicians and kind of moving in as the other half of your family to make decisions for you. Now they do this in other countries where the people are not free.”

Even though both she and her running mate supported the 700 billion dollar federal bailout, she criticized Barney Frank who has called for a second economic stimulus plan to help Americans worth at least 150 billion dollars. Palin told the crowd she does not want Frank making decisions for her.

“Government as part of the family, taking care of us, making decisions for us.” Palin said, “I don’t know what to think of having in my family Uncle Barney Frank or others to make decisions for me. I and John McCain tend to want to trust the American people with their income, their businesses, their things.”

She also introduced the possibility of Republicans losing many seats in both the House and Senate and in strong language warned the crowd about the danger of not having a balance of power and how a Democratic takeover of government may affect Iowa’s families.

“With a pro-tax, bigger government mentality, and that’s what you would get if we had unchecked powers there in Congress and the White House, if liberal leaning, bigger government persons were in charge of the House, the Senate and heaven forbid the White House too.” Palin said, “Think about how our children might grow up in a place with no checks and balances on the federal government. With big government spenders in charge of the House and the Senate and heaven forbid the White House. Unchecked power. What we have taught our children in terms of lessons about work ethic and hard work being rewarded. Those lessons would be eroded, um, the virtues of freedom and independence, while still being compassionate and generous with others, I’m afraid that those lessons would be eroded.”

She stressed that Obama has an “ideological commitment” to raising taxes even though his camp says they will not raise taxes on anyone making less that 250,000 dollars a year.

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Major Garrett reports that it was pressure from three high-powered House Democrats that finally forced Hillary Clinton into setting a date to suspend her campaign for the nomination.

Congressional sources tell Major that Reps. Charlie Rangel of New York, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, and Norm Dicks of Washington leaned on Hillary Clinton to end her campaign this week, after she declined to give a date for her departure on a conference call with about 20 congressional supporters

Rangel, Frank and Dicks made separate appeals to Clinton to come up with a plan to leave the race and throw her support behind Obama, telling her the party needs to unify.

All three were dissatisfied with Clinton’s speech on Tuesday, when Clinton failed even to acknowledge Obama’s insurmountable delegate lead. On Wednesday, Rangel told ABC News that “Unless she has some good reasons– which I can’t think of– I really think we ought to get on with endorsements and dealing with what we have to deal with… so we can move forward.”

Clinton later told congressional backers that she’d move to begin unifying the party soon, but the of lack a specific date caused Rangel, Franks, and Dicks to ratchet up the pressure

Overnight, Clinton sent a letter to supporters letting them know about her Saturday event where she’ll thank those who have been behind her for the last 16 months and express her support for Obama’s candidacy. You can read the full letter after the jump.

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