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PRESCOTT, Az. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain may be 72 years old, but he's not ready for the rocking chair.
Working on three hours of sleep, McCain hit seven states in 22 hours on Monday and Tuesday in a final cross-country sprint before the election, a grueling schedule for a man who would be the oldest person to ever take office as president.
"He's got a lot of stamina; I don't know if I could do it. I think he's in great shape," said stay-at-home mother Christina Riley, 41, at an airport rally in Blountville, Tennessee.
Up at 5:30 a.m., McCain raced through his stump speech and confidently predicted victory at morning stops in Tampa, Florida, and Blountville. By the third stop outside Pittsburgh, he appeared positively ebullient - or perhaps a bit punch drunk.
"Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, thank you, Joe," McCain said as he introduced independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a close friend.
He sounded a little hoarse at the next stop in Indianapolis.
But a three-hour flight to Roswell, New Mexico gave McCain a chance to rally. He campaigned energetically at several stops in New Mexico and Nevada. But grammar seemed to elude him at times at the final rally in Prescott, Arizona - the town where he has concluded his previous Senate races.
"It's great to be home. Seven states today, and the enthusiasm and the momentum we've received, we're going to win tomorrow," McCain told a cheering crowd of several thousand.
"It's been a long journey, a long, long journey 'till we get the nomination and we've got one more day," he said, more than 21 hours after he started his day in Florida.
Democrat Barack Obama had 14-hour day planned. His first event in Jacksonville, Florida, started at 11 a.m., and after two more stops in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Manassas, Virginia, he planned to reach his Chicago home shortly after midnight.
McCain has joked about his age on "Saturday Night Live", but it is a real concern for some voters, especially compared to the 47-year-old, basketball-playing Obama.
A battle with skin cancer has left a prominent scar on McCain's jaw, but medical records released in May gave him an essentially clean bill of health.
The presidency takes a visible toll on much younger men - Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush both accumulated plenty of white hair in office.
But at Monday's rallies, age didn't seem to be much of a concern for McCain.
"He looks like he's in really good health, plus it gives him wisdom," said 66-year-old Jean Soergel in Tennessee.
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