"Good things happen to the best presidential candidate, and that's exactly what's happening to John McCain," stated Rick Davis, Mr. McCain's campaign manager, in an email to supporters. Recently, Mr. McCain has been the beneficiary of influential endorsements from The Union Leader, The Boston Globe, The Des Moines Register and Independent-Democrat Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.).
The turnaround in Mr. McCain's campaign emphasizes the chaotic nature of a Republican primary where no front-runner has emerged and, according to a New York Times/CBS poll, 76 percent of Republican voters could change their mind before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus. But for Mr. McCain, whose campaign plummeted in the wake of a failed amnesty bill bearing the senator's name, the resurrection is a welcomed changed of events.
The McCain campaign has long placed its bets on New Hampshire, the state where the Arizona senator bested President George W. Bush in the 2000 primary. Mr. McCain currently holds second place with 18 percent in a Rasmussen Reports New Hampshire poll, 15 points behind front-runner Mitt Romney.
New Hampshire, though, is noted for its independent streak and the endorsement of Mr. Lieberman will further advance Mr. McCain's image as the maverick senator who is not beholden to a party platform. The only question yet to be determined is whether New Hampshire independents will share in Mr. McCain's hawkish view of the war in Iraq, the motivating reason for Mr. Lieberman's endorsement, or whether they will side with the policy of non-intervention advocated by Republican Ron Paul and some other Democrat candidates.
The fact that Mr. Lieberman, who was on the Democrat ticket in 2000 with Al Gore, would endorse a Republican for president demonstrates the volatile nature of the 2008 election cycle.
"If this were an ordinary time and an ordinary election, I probably would not be here today," Mr. Lieberman said while endorsing Mr. McCain in New Hampshire. "But this is no ordinary time, and this is no ordinary election, and John McCain is no ordinary candidate."
But outside the Granite State, the McCain campaign has been struggling to build an organization capable of carrying their candidate to Minneapolis in September. In Iowa, where Mike Huckabee holds 39 percent of the vote, Mr. McCain places a distant fourth with 6 percent.
The same holds true for Mr. McCain in Florida, where Mike Huckabee has the lead with 29 percent and Mr. McCain is at the back of the back with 6 percent. The Arizona senator does a little better in South Carolina, where he is tied for second with Fred Thompson at 12 percent. Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are tied for first with 23 percent.
The McCain campaign is hoping a win in New Hampshire will catapult their campaign to the front of the pack; a place Mr. McCain held less than a year ago.