US: The 2004 presidential election campaign reached near-saturation point in Florida over the weekend with the two main candidates criss-crossing the state with a small troupe of family surrogates and high-profile friends.
President George W Bush returned to Miami yesterday for a wild reception at a midday rally at Coconut Grove, before going on to campaign in Tampa, where Mr Kerry was also due to arrive late last night, after flying visits to Ohio and New Hampshire.
More than 1.8 million people have already cast their ballots in Florida through early or absentee voting and polling places were packed Saturday with some stations reporting queues lasting four hours. At political rallies over the weekend voters were urged to board shuttle buses to go to the polling stations.
The latest poll in Florida conducted by Mason-Dixon showed President Bush with a slim lead of 49 to 46 per cent. The Kerry campaign's emphasis on getting people to vote early seems to be paying off however. Of the 16 per cent of Floridians who voted in the first full week of balloting, 56 per cent voted for Kerry and 39 per cent for Bush, said one poll.
The big draw in the Sunshine State was singer Bruce Springsteen, who rocked the Kerry vote in Miami at a huge rally on Friday. "The future is for the passionate," he said, after playing Promised Land. "Roll up your sleeves and let your passion flow. The country we carry in our hearts is waiting."
John Kerry tried out his limited Spanish on the Miami crowd, getting cheers for promising to deliver more empleos (jobs) and to make the US mas respetado (more respected).
The president was joined in Miami by his brother Jeb, who as the popular governor of Florida is the Bush's biggest asset here. He depicted himself as a leader who sticks to principles, unlike his opponent who he said changed like the Florida weather.
"A president must lead this country with consistency and strength," he said. "In a war, sometime your tactics change, but never your principles." A defeat for the president in Florida would be devastating for Governor Bush, who has conducted a subtle campaign for his brother by pulling out all the stops to help victims of Florida's three hurricanes this season.
President Bush also sent his father to Palm Beach Gardens for a rare campaign appearance. The former president told supporters in a country club that Kerry was blaming his son for everything in a nasty campaign, and he wondered if he would also blame the president for the two potholes he hit on his way to the country club.
He and President Bush often mangled their words, he said, but they shouldn't worry as "he knows what he is doing."
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton made her first political speech in Florida on Saturday as she campaigned for Senator Kerry, along with Al Gore's daughter Karenna Gore Schiff, John F Kennedy's daughter Caroline, the Democratic candidate's daughter Vanessa and John Edwards's daughter Cate.
Introducing Ms Kerry, Ms Clinton said she was proud to call her a friend, "and in three days I hope to know her as our next first daughter." Making appearances in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, she said she was a tad nervous, adding: "I'm not quite an old pro but thankfully, I come from a family of old pros, and hopefully I'll do them proud."
Senator Kerry's vision and plan would work she said "because of everything that we experienced as a country during the eight years that my father served as president."
Documentary-maker Michael Moore was also in Florida where he said he plans to have cameras outside polling places tomorrow to watch for attempts to suppress voter turnout.
Problems have plagued early voting, however. In Lee County, elections officials were besieged by complaints from hundreds of voters who hadn't received absentee ballots, reflecting similar complaints in Broward county and Palm Beach county.
Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog, said it had received more than 7,500 calls from Floridians with voting trouble. Many complaints concerned challenges at polling booths by lawyers representing the candidates.
At a rally in Broward County the maker of Fahrenheit 9/11 drew mainly Democrats, but when a few Republicans heckled him, Mr Moore said, "Oh, I see it's the four more wars crowd."