Adjustments Fuel McCain Comeback

Recent polls show that John McCain's once troubled campaign has surged into second place. A number of factors have contributed to McCain's comeback.

After months of advocating immigration reform unpopular among the Republican base, McCain's position itself has now been reformed.
From MSNBC:

Now, the Republican presidential candidate emphasizes securing the borders first. The rest, he says, is still needed but will have to come later.

"I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift," McCain told reporters Saturday after voters questioned him on his position during back-to-back appearances in this early voting state. "I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people's priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders."

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While McCain's opponents surely will accuse him of flip-flopping, McCain claims he's just listening to the people. Furthermore, strategically it would be bad politics to stubbornly hold on to a stance that was unpopular and failed to produce any reforms.

McCain may have also helped himself with the base of the party by receiving the endorsement of former candidate, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas.

Another message the McCain campaign expects to resonate with the base and with Iowa voters is that America's oil dependence props up anti-American leaders like Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez.

From AP:

Oversized photos of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Vladimir Putin accompany the presidential candidate as he seeks to remind voters that the U.S. must push for energy independence.

"They illustrate the fragility of our independence on foreign oil and how these people control a large part of the world's oil supply, and how important it is for us to achieve energy independence," McCain told reporters Tuesday as he stood between two photographs - one of Chavez and Ahmadinejad embracing, the other of Putin.

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McCain has also asserted his independence from the Bush administration by saying that he would do more than they have to fight global warming.

His campaign also showed it tenacious side, while also stressing McCain's war hero credentials, in a recent withering attack against Rudy Giuliani's unfortunate remarks about torture.