For McCain, It Could Be State of Resurgence

In June, McCain's New Hampshire co-chairman, Steve Duprey, was getting calls from national reporters: "Is it true McCain is coming to New Hampshire to announce that he's withdrawing?" Today, Duprey is attempting to answer a different question: How did McCain recover?

Aides concede that McCain is benefiting from the general dissatisfaction Republican voters feel about his rivals, who they say have failed to sell themselves to a broad, conservative audience. But Duprey says McCain has also focused his energy on New Hampshire, holding almost 100 town hall meetings since September.

"He said: 'We made mistakes. Ultimately, I'm responsible,' " Duprey recalled. "Then he calmly went out and started town hall meetings, like he didn't have a care in the world. I don't know if there are that many candidates who could have sunken that low and had enough faith in his positions to stick with it."

McCain also worked hard to win endorsements from the state's leading papers, seeing it as a no-cost strategy for building support. Aides even pursued the Salmon Press chain of small weeklies, inviting its editors to ride on the bus.

Evidence of McCain's resurgence can be seen in the fresh attacks being leveled against him. At the Pats Peak ski resort in western New Hampshire, Romney criticized McCain for opposing President Bush's tax cuts and for pursuing what Romney called amnesty for illegal immigrants already in this country.

"I don't recall Senator McCain saying that he was wrong to say that all illegal aliens should be able to stay here permanently or that he was wrong to vote against the Bush tax cuts," Romney declared. "I think he was wrong on both counts."

McCain quickly retorted with a statement that recalled his being shot down in a Navy jet during the Vietnam War: "I know something about tailspins, and it's pretty clear Mitt Romney is in one. It's disappointing that he would launch desperate, flailing and false attacks in an attempt to maintain relevance."

The back-and-forth is reminiscent of the early days of the year, when McCain was leading and campaign aides for both regularly sent snippy missives. That was before McCain's campaign collapsed this spring under the weight of being seen as the inevitable choice of the Republican establishment.

Aides say his attitude changed the moment he became an underdog again. Michael P. Dennehy, who runs McCain's New Hampshire operation, put the precise moment at a town hall meeting in Haverhill on the weekend before Thanksgiving.

"It was like a switch was flipped on," Dennehy said. "It was eerily reminiscent of 2000."

But also different. McCain's town halls have a martial quality this time around. While well attended, they lack the irreverent spirit of his maverick campaign in 2000. Instead, they are full of somber talk about the war in Iraq and his reasons for supporting it. In 2000, before the Sept. 11 attacks, he focused on spending and campaign finance reform.

"He is the same guy as in 2000," Dennehy said. "He's developing the personal relationship that he did in 2000."

Staff writers Dan Balz and Jose Antonio Vargas in Iowa, Alec MacGillis in New Hampshire, and Juliet Eilperin in Florida contributed to this report.