McCain Fighting to Recapture Maverick Spirit of 2000 Bid

"Among Republican voters, Rudy has become the John McCain of 2008," said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who backed McCain in 2000 and is now supporting Giuliani. "Being the guy who's tough, independent, an iconoclast -- he is a newer version of John McCain."

Former congressman Vin Weber (R-Minn.), who publicly backed McCain in 2000 but is now working for Romney, said: "A non-Washington candidate seems to me to be very compelling, particularly for our party after eight years controlling the White House."

In New Hampshire, site of the nation's first primary, Moffett has signed up with Romney's campaign. Hume said he is uncommitted. In Iowa, which will hold presidential caucuses a week before New Hampshire's primary, Benton County GOP co-Chairman Loras Schulte said of McCain: "Washington does tend to morph people. I suspect that's part of his problem."

McCain's Washington friends are optimistic that he can retain the backing of his early supporters while building the kind of well-funded mainstream campaign that helped Bush prevail seven years ago.

"I'm mystified that people think it's a different John McCain," said former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, a friend of the senator's for three decades. "I just don't understand what being part of the establishment means. My sense is that people use that in a pejorative way. To say he's a maverick or establishment, frankly, I don't think either one does justice to who he is."

To back up their optimism, the senator's aides point to polls showing that nearly 60 percent of Republicans view McCain favorably. They also note that the senator has earned the endorsements of hundreds of officials.

But as McCain begins his second presidential campaign, the challenges continue to mount. He has been one of Congress's strongest defenders of a wildly unpopular war. In Giuliani, he faces a hero of Sept. 11. Conservatives remain bitter about his clashes with House Republicans over the past decade, skeptical about his record on taxes and suspicious about what they perceive as a lack of enthusiasm for speaking out on social issues.

The slide in the polls for McCain has occurred as public opinions about Bush and the Iraq war have soured. Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the president and the way he is handling the conflict.

McCain, meanwhile, has been steadfast in his support for both -- an indication, his aides say, of his refusal to conform his national security beliefs to the whims of public opinion. But that has put him in the hot seat, repeatedly defending Bush's Iraq policy almost as if it were his own.

"John McCain went from being the independent, reformist, change-oriented candidate to the biggest backer of George W. Bush at a time when Bush's approval is at an all-time low," said GOP pollster Frank Luntz. Republicans "have a choice," Luntz said, "and some of those people have chosen Rudy."

McCain's backers say the boomlet for Giuliani is a temporary phenomenon that will fade as Republicans learn more about the former mayor, particularly when it comes to his support for gay rights, abortion rights and gun control.

But even if conservatives ended up rejecting Giuliani, it is not clear whether they would turn to McCain, who has a long and rocky history with that wing of his party.