Campaign Trail

Taking the temperature in Florida

• Matthew Price
• 18 Oct 08, 02:20 AM GMT

When you travel like this around the US you are reminded that it is not a country but a continent. This week on Monday in Virginia we had the last warm days of summer, a chill wind necessitating a fleece in the evenings. In Pennsylvania on Wednesday the days began with mist, which was soon burnt off to reveal beautiful blue skies and autumn warmth.

Now down here on a Florida Friday, in the "sunshine state", it is almost tropical - hot and humid, not good weather for running around after a presidential candidate in a suit and tie.

It must though be doubly uncomfortable for John McCain. A month or so ago he would have assumed Florida would be his for the taking come election day. Just as he would have assumed Virginia would be too. And as he would have hoped Pennsylvania might have been.

The electoral mathematics is not shaping up as he would have liked though. He is on the defensive in states that he had hoped to win. Obama is on the attack, pouring in money and advertising, and volunteers, and using that grassroots support structure on which so much of his campaign has been built.

The McCain campaign just doesn't seem as well organized.

Before the latest John McCain rally, in Melbourne, Florida, we went to film on the beach. A dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

Not a bad place to do a "poll" of sorts.

The man from Florida setting up his fishing line said he would vote for McCain. He said the state might not, since so many people from New York had moved here, and they tend to lean Democrat. The largest he's caught from the beach was 52 inches.

The man from Alabama sitting in his T-shirt with his family and contemplating the waves was unsure. It was probably McCain, but he's still not certain, and in his thick southern drawl he said everyone's really worried about the economy in the coming years. It makes him focus on the choice for president. He had a family size cool box next to him packed with ice and cans.

The elderly couple from Missouri lying on their fold out beds were sure. Obama. He's the best man to lead the country. They've thought about it a lot. They have retired, they have no way of re-building their wealth. They have decided their futures are safer with Obama. But whoever the next president is, they're sure it's going to be a tough four years to run the country.

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