KEY POINTS:
Super Tuesday has started early in New York City, and it's not just politics that's dragging people out onto the streets.
I went to a John McCain open-air rally at the Rockefeller Centre at 7am this morning, and people were already starting to line Broadway for the Super Bowl ticker tape parade that's going on this morning.
A part of the street is called the Canyon of Heroes, and that's where big parades have been held before with people throwing ticker tape, confetti, and toilet paper from their high office windows. Hard to believe it might be, but for a few hours today I think voting will be only the second most important thing in many New Yorkers' minds.
McCain looked really confident at his event. Clearly he's hoping to sew up the Republican nomination today. Yesterday he launched an unusual foray into the heart of rival Mitt Romney's territory, campaigning in Massachusetts in what was a very in-your-face move. Time will tell if it was brave or stupid.
Romney's campaign appears to be calculating that McCain hasn't done enough work in California, so after an appearance in Georgia he jumped on a plane and flew across the country to California. There is talk amongst pundits this morning about whether McCain can win the nomination without winning the big state of California. The theory seems to be that he could, but it would be a hell of a lot easier if he got California.
McCain's staff worked hard to get the crowd going at his rally, but it's hard to make much noise when everybody is clapping in gloves. It must have been about 1 degree, if that. McCain often brings his wife and mother with him to the stage at rallies, and he likes to take on the question of his age by pointing to his mother. Today he did just that: "If anyone has any doubt about my age, meet my 95 year old mother". Up steps a sprightly-looking woman with white hair, to a big cheer. McCain then tells a well-worn story of how last year his mother Roberta wanted to drive around France, but when she got to Paris and tried to rent a car the company wouldn't give her one because she was too old. So she bought a car and drove around France.
Rudy Giuliani was also on stage with McCain today, which will likely help McCain in New York. Giuliani is still very much admired here for the way he handled the September 11 aftermath as Mayor of New York.
McCain's main theme revolves around national security and includes the war in Iraq. It's his strength, in Republican eyes, and he pushes the judgement and experience he has in this area and contrasts it to other candidates - including the Democrats.
His language speaks of "evil" and the "dedication of this enemy" that is radical Islamic extremism. His rallying cry is that he will never surrender to that evil, that "if I have to follow him to the gates of Hell, I will get Osama bin Laden".
It's all very strong stuff. McCain doesn't look that much different from President Bush on these issues at times. Where he does sound different is on government spending, where he talks about fiscal discipline in a way that suggests he isn't happy with the way the Bush administration has allowed spending to escalate. He also sounds different on a variety of other domestic issues.
But back to the war, because that's what McCain really wants to talk about. He tells a story about how he was approached by a woman in New Hampshire last year who asked him if he would do her the honour of wearing a bracelet with her son's name on it.
Her son was killed in combat, aged 22, in Baghdad just before Christmas. McCain said he would, and he flashed the bracelet on his wrist at today's rally. He said the woman then asked him to promise her he would do everything in his power to make sure her son didn't die in vain. That looks very much like what McCain's mission is in this Presidential race.
