LEESBURG, Virginia: Barack Obama and rival Mitt Romney stoked the embers of their smoldering debate as they campaigned through fiercely contested territory less than three weeks before the election.

Hitting the campaign trail on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila)—a day after one of the most contentious presidential face-offs in history—the two candidates sought the support of women voters and independents who could decide the November 6 vote.

Obama accused Romney of offering a “sketchy deal” by failing to explain how he would pay for across-the-board tax cuts, warning that politicians who wait to get elected before giving specifics often bring unwelcome surprises.

“We’re not buying it,” Obama told a crowd in Ohio, a key battleground state seen as a must-win for Romney. “We know better, because this is the same sketchy deal that we were sold back in the previous administration.”

The 51-year-old Obama, in a tongue-in-cheek aside, implicitly admitted his intense debate showing was a big improvement on a listless performance in the first showdown two weeks ago.

Romney, a multi-millionaire ex-governor of Massachusetts, also said that he was pumped up after Wednesday’s bare-knuckled debate, in which the two men aggressively paced the stage and repeatedly interrupted each other.

Romney blasted Obama as a slick salesman who talked a good game four years ago but has left the country in dire shape.

“The president’s policies are running on fumes,” he boomed to more than 8,000 people at a rally in Leesburg, where one man held up a “Democrats 4 Romney” sign.

Obama mocked Romney for telling the 65 million people watching the debate on television that he had combed through “binders full of women” while recruiting females for his cabinet when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Obama used the oddball phrase to criticize Romney over women’s health care and equal pay, while highlighting his own record on women’s rights and the need to hire more math and science teachers.

A fresh Gallup daily tracking poll showed Romney up six points among likely voters in his best showing yet, suggesting Obama’s strong rebound after the first debate came just in the nick of time for his supporters.

A new survey by Marquette University, of traditionally Democratic Wisconsin, showed Obama up by a single point.

Neither poll included data reflecting the impact of the second debate, but with the respected RealClearPolitics average of polls showing just a 0.4 percent lead for Romney, strategists from both campaigns acknowledged that the November 6 election could be agonizingly close.

The political class was still digesting the repercussions of the second debate, which included questions from undecided voters.

Ad hoc polls from major broadcasters gave Obama the edge, while analysts agreed that the Romney surge had hit a speed bump, leaving a close race.

As Obama spent a few hours in Iowa on Wednesday, 13 people took out a full-page ad in the Des Moines Register announcing their apology for voting for him four years ago and their intent to pull the lever for Romney in November.

The 13 people were named in the ad, which was paid for by the Romney campaign.