MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Vultures are circling John McCain's campaign bus.
The candidate formerly known as America's most admired politician is in serious trouble in the presidential contest, his detractors say. The problem: He's "too old, too Washington and too Iraq war," as one ex-supporter put it.
McCain, 70, is no longer the Republican front-runner, but the whispers out of rival camps that his candidacy is on the verge of collapsing seem premature. Instead, after a dismal few months, there are signs that the Arizona senator is pulling out of a tailspin.
With help from a new debate coach, he's sharpened his performance in televised forums. Some analysts called McCain the winner of last week's debate in New Hampshire. On the stump, he's showing signs of the form that made him a major national figure in 2000, despite losing the nomination to George W. Bush.
"I'm confident that we're going to be fine," McCain said in an interview as his 15-passenger van rolled across central New Hampshire. He pointed to polls that show him still running strongly in "the early states that matter" - Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Surprisingly weak fundraising has forced McCain to overhaul his finance operation, trim spending, dismiss 35 to 40 campaign staffers and devote far more of his time to soliciting funds. He's under pressure to show significant improvement later this month, when the candidates release new money numbers. Aides say he'll collect more this quarter than he did the first three months of the year.
His skid in the national polls - he placed fourth in a recent Pew Research Center survey - won't make it easier to coax cash from prospective donors. And he's facing fresh competition from former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who served as a national chairman of McCain's first presidential campaign and is now preparing to run against him as the new "straight-talk" candidate.
Critics say McCain is out of sync with his party in a year that favors outsiders. Republican voters want their next nominee to take the country in a different direction from Bush, according to opinion surveys. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who leads in the polls, calls himself the only candidate who can bring "big change" to Washington.
