WITNESS: Staying close to the candidates in campaign

Jeff Mason joined Reuters in October 2000 in Frankfurt, where he covered stock markets and transport companies. In 2004 he transferred to Brussels to cover European Union energy, environment and transport policy. An American, Jeff returned to the United States in January for the U.S. presidential campaign. In the following story, he describes life for reporters on the campaign trail.

By Jeff Mason

SCRANTON, Penn (Reuters) - On one campaign flight in August, I was finally getting some rest when I was woken by a familiar baritone.

I looked up, startled, to see Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama next to my seat, speaking to another reporter across the aisle.

Obama held press conferences on his plane but rarely came back for casual chit chat. After that incident, I made a note to myself: no more catnaps.

Since January, I have traveled with Obama and his Republican rival Sen. John McCain, as well as with Sen. Hillary Clinton in her race against Obama for the Democratic nomination.

On the ground, Obama sometimes offered reporters food during campaign stops at local diners. During a trip to Hawaii, where he was born, he advised reporters about the best way to eat "shave ice", a local version of a snow cone.

"Well I got lime, guava, and cherry. Solid flavors," he said, brandishing his treat and cautioning against a local custom of adding beans and ice cream to the concoction.

"As a purist though, you don't do the beans, you don't do the ice cream. You just do the shave ice." Words to live by.

McCain had a well-deserved reputation for accessibility from frequent chats with journalists on his Straight Talk Express bus, especially in the early months of the campaign.

During one of those rides I asked him if he supported changing U.S. law to allow foreign-born citizens, such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to run for president. He mused before saying it wasn't really a priority.

When I told him, jokingly, that the question was actually selfish because I was born abroad, he didn't skip a beat: "I'm for it! I'm for it!" he quipped.

The Arizona senator cut off access to reporters in the final months of his campaign as his aides tried to keep their freewheeling candidate on message.

LIFE ON THE TRAIL

All the presidential contenders had grueling schedules. During the primaries and the final days of the campaign, 14- to 18-hour working days were often the norm.

A typical day begins with a security sweep by the Secret Service. Then reporters board vans and careen in speeding motorcades to stadiums or gyms for campaign events, followed by short or long flights, sometimes hitting several states a day.