Mccain

DETROIT -- On the night of Sen. John McCains twin primary victories in Michigan and Arizona, he happily proclaimed in Phoenix: I am a proud Reagan conservative. I love the Republican Party. It is my home. It was a declaration that certainly would not warm the hearts of the Democrats and independents who flocked to the polls for him here in Michigan and overwhelmed the establishment Republicans rallied to the cause of Texas Gov. George W. Bush by three-term Gov. John Engler. But a glance at the primary calendar ahead shows why it had to be said.

Former GOP presidential candidate John W. McCain plans to go to South Carolina today, where he will announce his opposition to the Confederate flag flying over the state Capitol, sources said. The announcement is a marked shift from his comments during the primary season, in which McCain and rival George W. Bush refused to take a stand on the issue during their heated battle to win the state's Feb. 19 contest. Top campaign aides said that McCain regretted not urging the flag's removal before the primary, which he lost to Bush.

WASHINGTON -- John McCain's disadvantages seem to keep multiplying. He supports an unpopular war. His fundraising lags. The voters want change, and he's from the party in power. Now, Republican insiders are sniping at his campaign. Where does all that leave McCain, seven months before the election? According to the latest polls, he is essentially running even with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. "He continues to be the luckiest man alive," says Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who ran Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign.

WASHINGTON -- Lagging in fundraising and under fire for his support of the Iraq war, Sen. John McCain is overhauling his presidential campaign finance operation - including resorting to the big-donor approach to fundraising pioneered by President Bush - and is delaying the official announcement of his candidacy until after he delivers a major speech next week defending the troop escalation in Iraq, his aides said yesterday. His camp has grown anxious, especially over his fundraising, which is trailing that all of the major Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

John McCain once had the most powerful brand in American politics. He was often called the country's most popular politician and widely admired for his independent streak. It wasn't too many years ago that "maverick" was the cliche of choice in describing him. But that term didn't even make the list this year when voters were asked by the Pew Research Center to sum up McCain in a single word. "Old" got the most mentions, followed by "honest," "experienced," "patriot," "conservative" and a dozen more.

Sen. John McCain finished fourth in last week's Iowa Republican caucuses. Most of the time, coming in short of the bronze there would finish off a candidate. But not Mr. McCain, who is now said to be the front-runner for the Republican nomination. He leads some polls in New Hampshire, where independents will be able to vote for him in today's GOP primary. His major rival in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney, is thought to be deeply if not mortally wounded by finishing second in Iowa. The winner in Iowa, Mike Huckabee, is polling poorly in New Hampshire and has little money.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Sen. John McCain detailed his plan to solve the nation's health care crisis in a speech yesterday, calling for the federal government to give some money to states to help them cover people with illnesses who have been denied health insurance. McCain's plan would shift the emphasis from health insurance provided by employers to health insurance bought by individuals, to foster competition and drive down prices. To do so, he is calling for eliminating the tax breaks that encourage employers to provide health insurance for their workers and replacing them with $5,000 tax credits for families to buy their own insurance.

The allure of Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy to people nimble with the Internet was clear long before he became his party's front-runner. A Web designer produced an online video mimicking a famed Apple Computer commercial to mock rival Hillary Clinton before the first primary vote was even cast. The Illinois senator's ability to raise millions online fueled his rapid rise and sparked his recent decision to waive public financing for the presidential race. Obama's popularity online has risen at times to pop-culture phenomenon, from the "Yes We Can" music video produced by will.

WASHINGTON -- The late Murray Kempton, the elegantly epigrammatic columnist, noted that in America the absence of honest passion is a distinguishing feature of both professional wrestling and politics. Last week, Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, provided an exception to that rule.Anger can be rhetoric's whetstone, and it gave a razor's edge to Mr. McCain's participation in the debate on the resolution to authorize the president to use "all necessary force" to achieve the proclaimed aims of the war against Yugoslavia.

WASHINGTON -- A key early backer of Texas Gov. George W. Bush defected to a rival presidential campaign yesterday, offering another reminder that the race for the Republican nomination is far from over.Former New York Rep. Guy V. Molinari, a name with considerable power in delegate-rich New York GOP circles, switched his allegiance to Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the latest in a series of bumps for what had been the smooth-running Bush campaign.Molinari, a leader in the effort to coax Bush into the race, said he changed his mind after comparing the candidates.