In Iowa, Obama will wrap up 2012 campaign where it all began five years ago The decision to bid the campaign trail farewell with a nighttime appearance in Des Moines's historic East Village is as much symbolic as strategic. Obama is expected to spend more than $1 billion this cycle. He has held 101 rallies. His final day includes events in Madison, Wis., and Columbus, Ohio. But the president retains a special fondness for Iowa, where he upset Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic caucuses in January 2008. First lady Michelle Obama and rock icon Bruce Springsteen are set to join him in the state as he makes his last appeal to voters for a second term in the White House. "Iowa, I started my presidential journey right here in this state," Obama said Saturday in Dubuque, his 17th visit to the state during his presidency and 11th this year. So after two years of campaigning, and after four years as president, you know me by now. As Election Day draws near, Obama and his close-knit team of longtime campaign advisers have grown nostalgic. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki appeared at a rally in Cincinnati sporting a faded black Obama "08 baseball cap. Campaign adviser David Axelrod and White House adviser David Plouffe, also traveling with Obama, were wearing matching black Obama "08 fleece pullovers Monday. And White House speechwriters Jon Favreau and Ben Rhodes, who stumped with him four years ago, have let their facial hair grow for 10 days, vowing to shave only after the president has won his final campaign. Obama, too, is reflecting on the moment and how far he has come - win or lose. I just said to the president this is like the end of a long-running series and all the characters are coming back to be here. This has been a special journey," Axelrod said Monday in Madison, as Obama was taking the stage outside the state capitol in front of 18,000. Old friends Martin Nesbitt and Michael Ramos have traveled with the president this week on Air Force One - and will be joined on the plane Monday by Springsteen. Obama's closing rally in Des Moines will take place at the intersection of East 4th and East Locust streets, where he opened his first field office for the 2008 campaign. Robert Gibbs, Obama's former campaign and White House spokesman, will be there. So will Reggie Love, the president's personal aide during the 2008 campaign and the first three years of his presidential term. "Tonight when we're in Des Moines, we'll be right outside our headquarters where in 2007 it started and nobody gave us a chance to win the nomination," Plouffe said. So I think tonight will be a fairly profoundly emotional night. Gibbs recalled the days in 2007 when he forced Obama to make 30 calls a day to Iowa officials, including student organizers in high school. One call, made aboard an airplane, went to a girl who told Obama she was too busy in yearbook class and would call him back.