The presidential candidates made their last-minute pitches for votes today in a race against time ahead of Super Tuesday's all-important primaries and caucuses.
John McCain marched through the South exuding growing confidence of clinching the Republican nomination for president.
Mitt Romney aimed to staunch his rival's momentum but halted campaigning to attend the funeral in Salt Lake City of the leader of his Mormon faith, Gordon B. Hinckley, this morning.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton planned to rally supporters in Los Angeles, Tucson and Albuquerque, seeking to sharpen her image as a problem solver on issues such as healthcare for the poor and the middle class.
While in Southern California, Clinton stressed pocketbook issues with voters in a working-class neighborhood of Inglewood.
"We need to freeze [mortgage] interest rates, or we are going to have more people at risk of losing their homes," she said. ". . . What good would it be to have vacant homes in this neighborhood?"
"It is wrong for somebody to have to sell or refinance their home to send a child to college," the New York senator and former first lady added as she visited a couple who did precisely that.
In deeply Republican Idaho, Clinton's Democratic rival Barack Obama drew more than 14,000 people to a rally at Boise State University.
"They told me there weren't any Democrats in Idaho," the senator from Illinois thundered, as the crowd that filled the bleachers, balconies and floor at Taco Bell Arena erupted. "That's what they told me. But I didn't believe them. I did not believe them."
McCain drew cheers in Nashville in citing his support for the war in Iraq and distinguishing his views on the war and fighting terrorism from those of either of the Democratic candidates.
"Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton . . . want to wave the white flag of surrender," he said. "I will never surrender."
McCain told reporters that he was "guardedly optimistic" that he would emerge as the choice of Republicans for the November general election after the voting Tuesday.
"I sense a feeling of momentum. We're not taking anything for granted. That is why we are campaigning literally 24/7 between now and Tuesday," he said. "After Tuesday, I think we will assess the overall political situation. . . . But I assume that I will get the nomination."
