Romney holds "Victory Rally" at Mason on day before election

Governor Mitt Romney and wife, Ann, made a last-minute stop to George Mason University on Monday, Nov. 5 in front of a crowd of about 8,000 people at the Patriot Center. Romney argued that if elected he would bring “real change” to America, and he repeatedly attacked President Obama for his inability to bring about needed changes in the last four years.

This was Romney’s first visit to Mason this election and his second stop in Fairfax this fall. Romney spent a large portion of Monday in Virginia campaigning with Republican leaders in an effort to convince any undecided voters to go to the polls on Tuesday.

A large banner, that served as the backdrop to Romney as he spoke, said, “Real Change on Day One.” Change was a major point of focus in Romney’s speech as he mentioned multiple times that Obama failed to bring out about the change that his campaign promised.

“You know when the president promised change, you can actually look and see what happened, because change can’t be measured in speeches—it’s measured in achievements, and four years ago then-candidate Obama promised to do so very much, but he’s done so very little,” Romney said.

“Accomplishing real change is not just something I talk about, it’s something I have done and I will do as the next president of the United States,” Romney said.

Romney cited his experience as a businessman, as a governor and as someone who helped save the 2002 Olympics as qualifications to be the next president.

“Talk is cheap, but a record is real and it’s earned with effort,” Romney said.

Some of the measures that Romney mentioned in his speech that he will take if he becomes president include achieving North American energy independence in eight years, approving the construction of the Keystone Pipeline in Canada, boosting trade with Latin America and repealing “Obamacare.”

“[Obama’s] plan for the next four years is to take all of the ideas for the first four, you know, the stimulus and the borrowing and Obamacare and all the rest, and do them all over again. He calls this plan going ‘forward’— I call it ‘forewarned,’” Romney said.

Romney said that Obama made many promises when he ran for president in 2008 but has not fulfilled them.

“The president was right when he said that he can’t change Washington from the inside, only from the outside. We’re going to give him that chance in a day or two,” Romney said.

Romney was accompanied by many Republican politicians and current candidates including Congressman Frank Wolf, senate candidate George Allen and Governor Bob McDonnell, who introduced Romney.

Virginia is considered an important swing state this election and the latest NBC/WSJ/Marist poll shows Obama with a one-point advantage over Romney among Virginia voters. The latest CNN/ORC national poll has Romney and Obama tied. Virginia counts as 13 electoral votes and the state will be critical for either candidate to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency this election.

Election Day is on Tuesday, and the polls will open at 6 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m.