...The Great Schlep was launched to considerable fanfare after an accompanying video made by the comedian Sarah Silverman was watched seven million times on the internet.

Around 20,000 people signed up as Great Schlep fans on Facebook but the big push last weekend saw only one in 200 of them actually make the trip.

Even Silverman stayed away and doesn't actually have any grandparents in Florida. The closely-contested state has a large Jewish population, much of it made up of retirees from New York, and Democrats fear most will back John McCain.

To heap further embarrassment on the project, financed by the Jewish Council of Education & Research, many who did make the schlep discovered their grandparents were intending to vote for Mr Obama anyway...