LUTZ -- The typically health-conscious Mitt Romney made a campaign pit stop at a KFC here -- but was careful to plug an array of chicken joints, lest folks think he was playing favorites.

Topping his list: Miami's own Pollo Tropical.

Sitting at a corner table with Al Cárdenas, the former Florida Republican Party chairman and key campaign advisor, Romney tucked in to his KFC meal.

''You know what I love down here? Pollo Tropical,'' said Romney, who likes the Miami-based chain's grilled chicken, rice and black beans. ``I just got introduced to it a couple of months ago and now whenever I see a Pollo Tropical I like to pull in.''

Romney's selection Saturday included baked beans, coleslaw and fried chicken -- which the presidential hopeful noted he had stripped of its breading.

''I also like Chick-fil-A,'' he said.

-- TERE FIGUERAS

NEGRETE

FORT MYERS -- A crowd of 700 turned out to greet Sen. John McCain here Saturday, lining up outside the Shell Factory and Nature Park like spectators at a county fair.

''We love you!'' a group of retirees cried, as they waived signs and reached across the ropes to shake his hand.

Traveling with McCain was Sen. Mel Martinez, who endorsed the candidate Friday. ''I know he didn't just fall off a turnip truck and run for president,'' Martinez said as he introduced McCain to a standing-room-only crowd. ``Few people have been tested as he has been tested.''

McCain hit his stump themes of national security, veteran's health care, and controlling government spending.

''I feel he exemplifies to me what an older man of knowledge and expertise should be,'' said Hilda Reynolds, 91, who was wearing a button that had McCain lined up between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on Mt. Rushmore.

-- CASEY WOODS

MIAMI -- Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, struggling for money and a presence in Florida, says it has a new ad airing, but wouldn't disclose the extent of the buy, saying only it is running ``on various national cable programs.''

The campaign says the ad, titled Common Sense, ``highlights Huckabee's Main Street message and the need for major reform in Washington, beginning with abolishing the IRS and ensuring that taxation, regulation, litigation are kept to the bare minimum.''

''The IRS penalizes productivity,'' Huckabee says in the 30-second spot. ``Small-business owners face their toughest competition from their own government. Excessive taxation, regulation, and litigation leads to job migration. Let's change this nonsense to common sense.''

-- LESLEY CLARK

PEMBROKE PINES -- While Hillary Clinton spent the day stumping in South Carolina, her supporters in South Florida held a morning rally at Pembroke Pines retirement community Century Village.

About 75 retirees filled the community's restaurant, joined by two of her national campaign co-chairs, U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Alcee Hastings.

The congresswoman from Clinton's own New York district, Nita Lowey, talked to the group about Clinton's experience with healthcare, prescription-drug coverage, the economy and U.S.-Israel relations.

''At this very difficult time in our history we have to be sure -- and I know it's become a cliché, but I'm going to say it anyway -- but we have to be sure we have a president who steps into that Oval Office and knows what they are doing,'' Lowey said.

Several dozen attendees didn't need to be convinced: They had already cast absentee or early-voting ballots.

-- BREANNNE

GILPATRICK

ORLANDO -- It was supposed to be a ''Women for Giuliani'' event, but actually more men showed up.

U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack of California, widow of Sonny Bono and now wife of U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Florida, joked about the gender gap in the crowd before she introduced Rudy Giuliani. The event marked a rare occasion in which a woman introduced Giuliani to a crowd.

Picking up where he left off Friday night, Giuliani continued smacking down his opponents, saying voters could get the best of both worlds if they vote for him: experience in national security and economic matters.

''If you listen to my opponents, it's getting kind of nasty,'' he said. ``Gov. Romney has accused Sen. McCain of being dishonest. And Sen. McCain has accused Gov. Romney of being in favor of a timetable for retreat or something like that . . . Don't want to become like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, right?''

The crowd yelled ``Nooo!''

-- OSCAR CORRAL

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