John Mccain

John McCain won a tight victory Saturday night over Mike Huckabee in South Carolina's Republican primary, gaining precious velocity and bragging rights as the leader in the party's presidential race. McCain edged Huckabee, 33% to 30%, proving an ability to win in the conservative South and rebound in the state that crushed his presidential hopes eight years ago.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain raised more than $1 million Tuesday on rival Rudolph W. Giuliani's turf and picked up the endorsement of the former New York mayor's longtime nemesis. Former Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-N.Y.) switched his allegiance in the presidential race from former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who abandoned his bid Tuesday, to McCain. D'Amato has long been at odds with Giuliani.

Is John McCain about to get tripped up by another issue of special importance to a state that finds itself in the political spotlight? In Michigan, fresh off his win in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, McCain's comment that many lost auto industry jobs weren't coming back -- while almost assuredly true -- may have undercut his momentum.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) endorsed John McCain on Friday, a move likely to give the Republican presidential candidate a boost with the state's Cuban Americans days before the Tuesday primary. "I understand that he is ready on Day One to lead this nation, and I would trust the future and the security of this nation to this man," Martinez said in introducing the Arizona senator to the Latin Builders Assn.

It was man-to-man political combat from the predawn hours Monday, but John McCain seemed to be relishing every minute. As the senator from Arizona took a seat among reporters on his "Straight Talk Express" bus in the late afternoon, he playfully clenched his fists in a fighter's stance. "What's the latest incoming? What dastardly deed did I perform most recently?" McCain asked.

John McCain now has a pathway to the Republican presidential nomination. The question is whether he can put his fractured party back together. The Arizona senator, long the bane of the GOP establishment, showed in Florida that he could begin cobbling together a new Republican coalition -- attracting enough support from all corners of the party base to give him a plurality in the biggest and most diverse state to vote so far in the 2008 campaign.

John McCain and Mitt Romney carried their bitter Florida clash into California on Wednesday, each impugning the other's honesty in a hot-tempered debate as they sought to attract voters casting ballots in five days in a coast-to-coast array of primaries and caucuses. McCain, caustic for much of the debate, castigated Romney for what he said was a past insinuation that America should withdraw from Iraq.

John McCain sought to fasten his grip on the Republican presidential nomination Wednesday by securing high-profile endorsements from erstwhile rival Rudolph W. Giuliani and, in a reversal of his promised neutrality, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Former New York City Mayor Giuliani, who spent months atop national polls but never finished better than third in any contest, quit the race at a Simi Valley news conference, where he hailed the Arizona senator as a friend and an "American hero."

Perspective is easily lost during political campaigns. Overlooked in this year's careening primary season has been the magnitude of Republican John McCain's comeback. "Front-runner" may be the tag many now apply to the Arizona senator's political status, but barely more than six months ago, "Dead Man Walking" was in vogue. In early 2007, McCain's outspoken support for the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq was seen as a significant minus.