NPR: McCain's Presidential Bid Showing New Life

McCain's Presidential Bid Showing New Life

William Goldman, the Hollywood screenwriter who wrote such films as "Marathon Man," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," and "The Princess Bride," has two famous rules about Hollywood: nobody knows anything and structure is everything.

The campaign of Republican Senator John McCain shows the same rules can apply in their own way to the quest for the presidential nomination. Over the summer, McCain's bid was all but written off by pundits, politicians and experts because of mismanagement and fund-raising problems. Most people thought he would be forced to drop out of the campaign long before Christmas.

The person who didn't write it off was McCain himself. He stuck to his "structure" and kept campaigning, regardless of the situation. (At one point, he even had to lay off some of his staff because of a lack of funds.)

And as NPR's Audie Cornish reports rumors pf McCain's demise have been greatly exaggerated. He is seeing brighter days on the campaign trail, and is back in the hunt for New Hampshire. He's been getting a lot of endorsements, from people like Boston Red Sox star pitcher Curt Shilling and Independent Democrat Sen. Joe Lieberman (more on that in Ken Rudin's Political Junkie column today), and many newspapers.

McCain says he knows this endorsement won't necessarily get people to vote for him, but they will push people to give him another look. Currently most polls show McCain is now in second place in New Hampshire, anywhere from four to eleven percentage points behind longtime frontrunner Mitt Romney.

3:13 PM ET | 12-19-2007 | permalink

Comments

You can never under-estimate the comeback kid.I tried to tell you that he was a survivor"oh by the way did I tell you that he was a POW?"

Sent by Vicki Hampton | 3:21 PM ET | 12-19-2007

Personally, I would go for a Romney/McCain ticket.

Sent by Harold | 5:34 PM ET | 12-19-2007

Blarg, I'm pretty sure Romney/McCain in '08 would break the seventh seal.

Sent by Jody Sol | 5:47 PM ET | 12-19-2007

Ladies and Gentleman....This has become the 'Election of Robin Hood Heroes.'

Between Paul and Kucinich and Huckabee and McCain and gawd knows who else will come along to save the world.

And we owe it all to Hillary.

fred camorra call

Sent by fred camorra call | 6:41 PM ET | 12-19-2007

I'm conflicted. I appreciate McCain's opposition to torture tactics, his willngness to back campaign reform, and his strong position on combatting climate change. But his stance on social issues does not encourage me.

Sent by Chris Wiegard | 6:30 PM ET | 12-21-2007

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