Racing to win their parties' nomination, US presidential candidates are already settling into a routine of late-night conference calls, Sundays spent in the office and a diet of fast-food.
These are normally the hallmarks of the final weeks of campaigning for the primary election, where voters will select a candidate from each party to stand in the November 2008 election.
But the breakneck pace is already the norm in the early voting states of New Hampshire and Iowa - and it's only August.
"We think it's nonstop now?" says Mike Dennehy, Republican Senator John McCain's national political director. "Once we hit Labor Day, it's going to be blazing fast," he said, referring to the holiday in early September.
And it's not just McCain sprinting. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, another Republican candidate, starts his 14-hour campaign days at 7 am; to save time, he carries a gallon Ziploc bag of granola - made by his wife, Ann - to double as breakfast and snacks.
Rudy Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York, flew to Iowa for a recent debate, landing less than two hours before it began. And Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton flew from New Hampshire to Chicago and back in less than 24 hours, sandwiching a labor union forum between twin policy addresses here.
The pace is even faster in Iowa, where several forums, the 11-day Iowa State Fair and other events have produced a bumper crop of candidates.
Part of the rush is the ever-accelerating primary calendar, which could well begin this December and produce nominees in February. The race also is the first since 1928 without a sitting president or vice president seeking to stay in the White House. (President Harry Truman dropped out early in 1952, as did his vice president, Alben Barkley, soon afterward.)
Add to that voracious media attention, top candidates who are virtual celebrities and torrid fundraising, and it's clear the relative sanity of Augusts of yore is a thing of the past.
"Everything is happening earlier this time around. I think the campaign just started earlier," said Patricia Harris, a minister in Nashua, New Hampshire, who has met all the candidates and endorsed Clinton.
Unchanged, however, is the need for candidates to spend large amounts of time in early states, reaching out to ordinary Americans.
Recently, Giuliani was the latest presidential hopeful to stop by the Flapjack Family Restaurant in Maquoketa, Iowa.
"We've been here for about 24 years. For whatever reason we've had an awful lot of activity," said owner Sid Thompson.
He said celebrity doesn't count for much with Maquoketa's 6,000 residents.
"They're open to listening to the candidates, but the residents here do an awful lot of digesting of information rather than being overwhelmed by the candidates being here," he said.
The same appears to be true in New Hampshire, if the latest University of New Hampshire poll for CNN is any guide. The poll found that 64 percent of Democrats still haven't made up their minds, and 71 percent of Republicans said the same.
"I know you people in Newle, are going to keep spinning at full speed.
"I don't think it's possible (to slow)," Dennehy said. "It's full steam ahead. You try to squeeze out as much as you can from a 24-hour day."
Source: China Daily/agencies
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