(Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - With just 18 days to go before Election Day, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan rallied a crowd of more than 8,000 at the Daytona Beach Bandshell, with the GOP presidential nominee calling the president's re-election effort "the incredible shrinking campaign."

"They've been reduced to petty attacks and silly word games," Romney said in front of one of the largest crowds of his campaign. "Just watch it. The Obama campaign has become the incredible shrinking campaign. This is a big country with big opportunities and great challenges, and they keep on talking about smaller and smaller things. We have big ideas, bold ideas, a strong agenda. We're going to get America working again and that's why you're going to help elect the two of us. We're going to go to Washington and get this country on track."

Country music singer John Rich warmed up the rowdy crowd, which also had a large contingent of bikers for Daytona's Biketoberfest weekend, a festival for motorcycle enthusiasts.

Rep. Ryan, R-Wis., noted them in the crowd.

"I just came in on town and I saw a lot of our Milwaukee-made Harleys running all around town here," Ryan said.

Romney asked the crowd if it had "been watching the Obama campaign lately?" adding, "it's absolutely remarkable."

"They have absolutely no agenda for the future," Romney said, as protesters could be heard chanting in the distance. "No agenda for America. No agenda for a second term. It's a good thing they won't have a second term."

A new CNN/ORC poll out Friday had the race in Florida in a dead heat, with Romney at 49 percent and Obama at 48 percent. The event wrapped up a two-day swing in the state for Ryan.

Romney will spend the weekend in South Florida. He will be in Delray Beach, Fla., preparing to debate President Obama on Monday in Boca Raton, Fla.