McCain Finds His Footing

That ease and intimacy have carried over to his debate performances. He opened Wednesday night by suggesting slyly that Thompson might be skipping the debate (for the Jay Leno show) because "we're up past his bedtime."

After making his points about Iraq and immigration, he smiled contentedly as Romney and Giuliani struggled to answer tough questions about their personal histories -- questions that raised doubts about their credibility.

And then he received an unsolicited testimonial from rival Mike Huckabee, as the former Arkansas governor complimented McCain for setting "honor" as the criterion for American policy in the war. "If there's anybody on this stage that understands the word 'honor,' I've got to say Senator McCain understands that word," Huckabee said of the former Vietnam POW.

Unsurprisingly, a Fox focus group in Manchester named McCain the debate winner, and Dante Scala, a UNH political scientist, told a politically oriented Web site, "If New Hampshire Republicans were tuning in, they're probably thinking to themselves, 'That's the John McCain I remember.' "

To top it off, the Concord Monitor editorialized on Thursday that McCain is "good at the kind of campaigning that wins elections here. That's no accident. As much as any candidate in recent memory, McCain respects -- and embraces -- the New Hampshire primary," with its emphasis on person-to-person communication.

Fred Thompson, take note.

davidbroder@washpost.com