United States:As the queue snaked around Clawson High School and along an adjoining football pitch, it was hard to believe that the rally inside was for a Republican presidential candidate rather than for one of the Democratic superstars in the race.
Republican crowds have been modest throughout the race so far. For a few months last year, when John McCain's campaign appeared to be falling apart, the Arizona senator was lucky to attract a few dozen supporters.
However, as Michigan prepares to vote tomorrow, McCain is the favourite to win the Republican nomination, with some polls putting him ahead of Mitt Romney in Michigan and leading the Republican field in South Carolina and Florida, the next two states to vote.
Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire win was more dramatic, but McCain's comeback more remarkable given the near-collapse of his campaign last year.
"At one point last summer I was reminded of the words of Chairman Mao, who said it's always darkest before it's totally black," he told his audience.
McCain, who was the Republican frontrunner at the start of 2007, plunged in the polls as he supported President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq and backed an immigration reform plan that would have allowed up to 12 million undocumented immigrants to remain in the US legally and eventually apply for citizenship.
Meanwhile, his free-spending campaign ran out of money, his top advisers bickered and, by the summer, most of his staff were laid off and McCain was travelling by bus and staying in cheap hotels. No longer the frontrunner, he returned to the strategy that saw him become George Bush's most formidable rival for the nomination in 2000, offering up "straight talk" in town hall meetings and giving the media almost unlimited access.
It worked so well in New Hampshire that McCain trounced former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who had spent millions of dollars on advertising and organising in the state.
McCain was in fine, wisecracking form in Clawson, seizing on an introduction by the governor of Minnesota to tell a favourite joke about two prisoners standing in line for dinner; one says to the other: "The food was much better here when you were governor."
There is little to smile about in Michigan, however, which has the highest unemployment rate in the US and has been hit harder than anywhere by the mortgage crisis, with a record level of home repossessions. As Detroit hosts its annual auto show this week, the big three carmakers are in bad shape as US sales decline and foreign brands command more than half the home market.
Michigan defied the Republican and Democratic party bosses by moving its primaries into January and was stripped of all its delegates at the Democratic national convention and half of its Republican delegates.
The Democrats are not contesting tomorrow's primary and only Clinton and Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich remain on the ballot, but the Republican race is closely fought between McCain and Romney, with Mike Huckabee hoping for a good third place.
At a town hall meeting in a Detroit suburb, McCain addressed Michigan's economic troubles with characteristically blunt talk. "I can't look you in the eye and tell you that things are good in this state," he said. "The old jobs won't come back."
McCain promises more help for displaced workers and massive investment in research on new technologies that could revolutionise the car industry, but many Michigan voters believe that the old jobs would indeed come back if the US was tougher in trade negotiations.
Like most candidates, McCain answers questions in town hall meetings but uniquely, he also gives questioners a chance to rebut him if they disagree with his prescriptions.
Irish connections: good schools and Roddy Doyle
Among the Republican candidates, McCain has the most overt support among Irish-Americans and he refers to Ireland and the Irish frequently in speeches and interviews. In private, he will talk at length about his affection for the writing of William Trevor and Roddy Doyle, making him one of the few candidates one can imagine reading a work of fiction at all.
After the Clawson rally, when an eight-year-old girl asked him about his plans to improve schools, McCain once again looked across the Atlantic for inspiration.
"There's a country called Ireland that used to be poor and now is doing well," he told her. "One of the reasons Ireland is doing better is because they reformed their school system and I think we should look at that in America."