McCain's America Looks Like N.H., Only Bigger

TYLER, Tex., Feb. 27 -- As goofs go, John McCain's slip at a town hall forum Friday was a small one. Contrasting himself with his likely Democratic opponent, he said, "I'm a proud, conservative, liberal Repub --" And then he caught himself, just as the audience started laughing.

"Hello! Easy there. Let me say this," he tried again. "I am a proud, conservative Republican."

The slip of the tongue prompted Internet headlines all day, given the trouble the presumptive Republican nominee has had in convincing conservatives that he is not a liberal. But for McCain, the moment summed up how he plans to campaign this year: by using his knack for charm, bluntness and humor in one town hall after another all across America.

From the back of a 1980s-era bus, he will travel to and from college campuses, company break rooms and town squares. In between, he will hold court with small groups of reporters on the bus's faux-leather couch. And once a day or so he will push himself to hold a rally.

When he is done, he will get on a plane and take the show to another state. It's a quaint and inefficient way to sell a candidate to the American people, especially if McCain faces Barack Obama, whose rock-star persona can fill a stadium with 20,000 screaming fans. And Democrats are preparing an all-out campaign to undermine the image of openness that McCain's campaign hopes to foster.

But McCain and his top advisers believe he has no choice: It's simply who he is.

"We'll try to just do the same thing we have been doing, only with a wider audience," McCain told reporters on the Straight Talk Express in Ohio this week. "I admit that it's difficult. But I think we can do it. You've got to maintain the same flavor of the campaign that we have throughout."

That's a tall order as McCain takes his shoestring campaign from the hamlets of New Hampshire to the vast expanse of America. Modern presidential campaigns are built on jet planes, not charter buses; high-intensity TV ads, not lengthy conversations with reporters; and tightly controlled messages, not answers to sometimes oddball questions from whoever shows up.

Unlike President Bush, whose tightly controlled forums are filled only with GOP bigwigs and other invited guests, McCain flings the doors wide open.

So far, mostly Republicans have attended: military veterans who are there to honor McCain's service, conservatives eager to challenge him on immigration and the environment, staunch supporters, and the curious. But as he campaigns this fall, he is likely to face more Democrats and independents -- and much tougher questions.

For now, the events are predictable. In a half-hour, McCain gets a handful of easy questions, a few off-the-wall queries and some that give him the chance to prove his independence from Republican orthodoxy.

At one gathering recently, a woman asserted it would be "a waste" not to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. McCain grinned, seeing an opportunity.