McCain boosts presence in New Hampshire

John McCain, whose campaign appears to be resurging, announced this morning that he will put up his first TV ads in New Hampshire starting this weekend.

A 30-second TV spot, titled "Live Free," praises McCain's judgment and trust and promises that he will restore trust in the federal government. "New Hampshire, you know who he is," the narrator says, reminding viewers that McCain won the first-in-the-nation primary in 2000.

A 60-second TV ad, titled "One Man," shows an extended clip of McCain being interviewed in a hospital bed as a prisoner-of-war after his Navy plane was shot down over North Vietnam. The narrator says "one man" sacrificed for his nation, a not-so-veiled reference to the fact that none of his main rivals served in the military.

And a 60-second radio spot, titled "Courage," also includes the POW interview and says McCain will be a leader, not a follower.

The ads follow up on a speech this morning to the conservative Hudson Institute in New York, where he suggested that rivals Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, lack the foreign policy experience to be commander-in-chief.

The Arizona senator argued that the next president needs "tested experience, political courage and strategic clarity to make sound and difficult decisions," according to the Associated Press. "Tough talk or managerial successes in the private sector aren't adequate assurance that their authors have the experience or qualities necessary for such a singular responsibility," he said.

In a conference call with reporters, campaign manager Rick Davis said while McCain does not try to elevate military service over other ways to serve the country, McCain's military service is "an obvious contrast" and the knowledge and experience he gained would be invaluable to a president in "the time of crisis and time of war we exist in now."

"I do think people's credentials are going to be debated in this election, and this is a very important one in this time of war," Davis said.

McCain, whose campaign went through staff and financial wobbles earlier this year, is trying to capitalize on a burst of momentum, tied in large measure to his support for the so-called surge of US troops in Iraq. This month, he took his "No Surrender" bus tour to Iowa and New Hampshire.

In the latest New Hampshire poll, McCain rose to 17 percent support among likely GOP primary voters, up from 12 percent in July. That puts him within striking distance of the leaders, Romney with 23 percent and Giuliani with 22 percent, according to the CNN/WMUR survey released Wednesday.

"We think this is significant because of the campaign John McCain has waged there recently," Davis said of the poll.

Campaign officials said that the ads will air statewide for at least the next two weeks and are designed to remind voters of heroic McCain's life story and to lock in the progress McCain seems to be making.

McCain also plans to be in New Hampshire this weekend for several events.