McCain won New Hampshire by reviving echoes of his 2000 campaign with a "Mac is back" tour aboard the "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus and more than 100 town hall meetings that often featured colorful exchanges. When an undecided voter told him over the weekend he was in political "purgatory," McCain said: "It's a step up from where I was last summer."
The Arizonan again sought support from political independents who are eligible to vote in either primary in New Hampshire.
In this campaign, however, McCain spent more time discussing his experiences as a Vietnam prisoner of war. He also emphasized his Senate work on national security issues, particularly the Iraq war. He voiced support for last year's troop increase in Iraq, and took credit for influencing that strategy.
The Wall Street writes about "McCain's Mojo."
The race now heads to Michigan next week, where independents can also vote and where Mr. McCain prevailed in 2000. Mr. Romney signaled that he'll also fight in a state where his father was once Governor, offering his latest retooled theme that he's the Republican Obama, the best man to "change" Washington.
While making that case this week, however, he also made the same mistake he did in Iowa, assuming that immigration was the kill shot against his opponents. Yet the smooth businessman never seemed natural impersonating Tom Tancredo. Mr. Romney is now portraying Mr. McCain, a four-term Senator, as an "insider." But this may also be a tough sell considering Mr. McCain's status as an outside insider, someone who has never been part of the Senate club.
Mr. McCain's opportunity -- and challenge -- is to show that he is now the best candidate to unite the anxious and fractious wings of the Republican coalition. With Rudy Giuliani suspect among cultural conservatives, and Mike Huckabee trashing Wall Street and corporations, Mr. McCain is now the candidate best positioned to appeal to all Republican voters.
Ana Marie Cox writes in Time about Making McCain's Momentum Count for More.
But it's worth remembering that the arguments of consultants have a half-life shorter than a gnat in this race. McCain's campaign in New Hampshire is itself evidence of the unpredictability of this election. (Romney outspent McCain by a margin of at least four to one here, for one thing.) In the hours before results started to come in, top McCain aides were still unsure if they would even win.
As for McCain himself, he wisely does not try to explain his victory in linear narratives. The morning of the primary, wearing the same green sweater and staying in the same room as in 2000, he explained his own strategy for the day: "There is no superstition I won't indulge," he said. "I believe in luck."
Lastly, the Boston Herald discusses the important of New Hampshire's Picks.
There is something more than sweet about last night's solid victory for Sen. John McCain over former Gov. Mitt Romney. And it's not just about the Mac-is-back aspect of this incredible political season.
No, it's yet another lesson from yet another state that money can't buy voters' loyalty and negative doesn't work - not when people get an up-close and personal look at the candidates as they do in the Granite State.
The focus-driven politics of the Romney campaign were in the end no match for McCain's Straight Talk Express - dusted off from his 2000 New Hampshire victory and still a symbol of all that is right with the McCain campaign.
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