It’s hard to believe, but the end is in sight. With Election Day
less than 24 hours away, John McCain will hit nine cities and seven
battleground states today in a grueling schedule that will have the
candidate and his entourage on the road for the next 22 hours. After a
midnight rally in Miami, last night, McCain this morning flies to
Tampa and then is scheduled to continue on to rallies in Bristol,
Tenn., near the Virginia border; Pittsburgh; Indianapolis; Roswell,
N.M.; Las Vegas; and will end up in Prescott, Ariz., where he will hold
a midnight rally on the steps of the Yavapai County Courthouse, the place
one of his political heroes, Barry Goldwater, began and ended his own
presidential campaign. From there, McCain will head home to Phoenix,
where he is set to arrive around 4 a.m. EST. Yet McCain won’t get to sleep
in. Ignoring his usual Election Day rituals of seeing a movie and
awaiting the results, the candidate will likely be back on the road
early Tuesday, when, after voting, he is tentatively scheduled to hold
last-minute rallies in Colorado and New Mexico. He’s tentatively
scheduled to be back in Phoenix around 7 p.m. EST—around the time polls
begin closing in Indiana and Virginia, two GOP strongholds that
threaten to turn blue this election. It’s unusual to see a presidential
candidate actually campaigning on Election Day, but McCain’s advisers
continue to insist the race is tightening even more than what public
polls suggest. Speaking to reporters on the plane last night, Rick
Davis, McCain's campaign manager, repeated a line he and other aides
have been using in recent days. "We are in striking distance," he
declared.