Seeing new possibilities in Iowa, McCain boosts his effort
Campaign hopes for a third-place finish in caucuses
DES MOINES - When John McCain cruised through Iowa in early November, reporters were looking for clues that he might be altogether abandoning his efforts in the state to focus on New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Yesterday, he returned to the state for two days of campaigning, evidence that the campaign sees renewed possibilities for a surprise result in Thursday's caucuses.
"Iowans are giving us a second look, but I don't want to oversell it," said Jon Seaton, McCain's director in Iowa. "We're not on TV here, we're on a tiny radio buy, we're not in the mail."
McCain is hoping that it might not take a major push to pull off a third-place finish in Iowa behind Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, a showing likely to offer a significant boost going into the New Hampshire primary five days later. A Globe poll published Sunday suggested McCain running nearly even with Romney in New Hampshire.
McCain aides estimate that as few as 2,000 votes could separate fifth place from third in Iowa, given uncertainty in the Republican field and indications of disinterest among the party's voters, who in polls say they are less than enthusiastic about the available candidates.
"Turnout at the Republican caucus could be very, very low in Iowa," McCain said in a recent interview.
There has never been much love between McCain and Iowa. In 1999, during his first presidential campaign, McCain wrote off the state entirely. This year, he made plans to compete, but received a cool reception from the state's conservative, rural Republican electorate because of his opposition to ethanol and agriculture subsidies and his support for comprehensive immigration reform.
But with one week before the caucuses, he is back with a sheath of fresh newspaper endorsements, including from the Des Moines Register, the state's largest daily. McCain is dropping in on six of the state's media markets on a brisk fly-around - in several stops, not even leaving the airport before moving onto the next city - and plans to return briefly next week.
At a time when other candidates are flamboyantly unveiling new stump speeches featuring their "closing arguments" to voters, McCain is relying on the same language and themes that have carried him through the fall. In addition to reflecting on the crisis in Pakistan in the aftermath of yesterday's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he lamented the failure of fellow Republicans to combat corruption and overspending and trumpeted ongoing military successes in Iraq.
"I've got the knowledge, experience, and judgment to lead," McCain said in Des Moines.
The one man who stood up in Des Moines to talk about immigration praised the Arizona senator's efforts at bipartisan reform that languished in Congress earlier this year.
"I'm not sure you will find a lot of people who agree with that guy," Seaton said afterwards. "But it was nice to hear."
Sasha Issenberg can be reached at sissenberg@globe.com. 