Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 31, 2007;
Page A06
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- As Sen. John McCain stages a resurrection in New Hampshire, his loyalists here say they can feel it in the air: the spirit of early 2000, when the Arizona Republican rode a raucous insurgency to trounce his party's establishment prince, George W. Bush, in the first-in-the-nation primary. "Mac is Back!" chanted supporters welcoming McCain as he arrived at the airport Friday from Iowa.
said Paul Chevalier, the head of McCain's veterans advisory group here.
"He's back to his old self, and the
electricity is in the air,"
"I kind of missed the electricity of last
time until recently, but now it's definitely there. He walks into a hall and
people come alive."
But it would be a mistake to read what is occurring in New Hampshire -- where McCain has surged to a close second in polls, behind former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney -- as simply a repeat of the 2000 primary.
In 2000, McCain won over New Hampshire voters as much with his straight-shooting, mischievous persona as with his platform of reforming the campaign finance and tax systems. He drew impassioned support from the state's independent voters, who can vote in either party's primary, and provoked suspicion from many establishment Republicans, who, further into the primary season, coalesced to crush his candidacy.
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