KEY POINTS:
Hi from the US where over the next week I'm going to be taking a close look at the tight race to be the next US President.
Right now I'm in sunny Los Angeles, where candidates from both the Republican and Democrat parties will be arriving over the next couple of days to campaign and appear in crucial televised debates.
The race is so close on both sides that a strong debate performance could put a candidate on a roll heading into Super Tuesday, when a huge number of states will decide who they want to put forward as the next President.
I'll be at the debates and in California throughout the week, with the help of the US State Dept's Foreign Press Center.
I'll be meeting various academics, pollsters, politicians, political journalists, advocates and just plain American people to talk about the race.
Then I'll be in New York next week for Super Tuesday. I hope you enjoy my blog.
Today is the day that Florida votes, and for the Republican side it's a very important day. There is wall-to-wall television coverage on at the moment counting down the number of hours until the Florida polls close, and there's widespread speculation Rudy Giuliani will be close to, if not, a goner after this vote. The former New York Mayor opted to campaign only in the big states and didn't appear in the early stages when John McCain and Mitt Romney started what is now beginning to look like a two-horse race to be the Republican candidate.
Latest polling shows Giuliani battling with Mike Huckabee to be third in Florida. His high-stakes game may be about to fail. Reporters here are even reading a lot into the fact Giuliani yesterday gave signed baseballs to reporters who have been following him on the campaign trail, as if that was a hint he knows he's about to say goodbye to them as well as to being President.
McCain and Romney are in a tight tussle to win the state, according to this morning's polls.
On the Democrat side, the media coverage here is all about Bill Clinton. Not Hillary. Oh, and the Kennedys.
Bill Clinton has been speaking in New Jersey today and there's a close examination going on in the media of his role in his wife's campaign - clearly some think he's been going too far in his questioning of Barack Obama's readiness to lead the country. But this is new territory, there has never been a former President in a First Spouse role before. That controversy looks set to continue for a while yet - and if Hillary Clinton eventually becomes President it could well go on for years.
Yesterday Senator Ted Kennedy and members of the famous Kennedy family endorsed Obama for the Democrat nomination, in what is being seen as a major boost for him. Having the Kennedys come out on his side happened just days after a strong win in South Carolina, and the Obama '08 campaign has renewed momentum.
Even if he is being accused of 'snubbing' Hillary Clinton by turning away from her at last night's State of the Union address by President George W Bush.
Today's Florida vote doesn't mean much for the Democrats, because their party has decided to prevent the state's votes from meaning anything. The move is a punishment for the party's Florida arm moving its vote forward on the calendar without permission, in the hope it might have more influence. Well, that didn't work!
Clinton - Hillary that is - has been saying Florida still means something though - which you might expect her to do given that she's ahead in polls there and needs a boost. Keep talking Hillary...
I'm off to meet the other international journalists on my trip and to attend a couple of events now.
Florida will be decided by the time I get back, so keep your eye on nzherald.co.nz to see who won!
