McCain takes once high-flying bid to S.Carolina

By Steve Holland

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) - US Airways Flight 3027 from Washington to South Carolina was cramped on Monday, carrying a full load of passengers that included summer travelers and Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

This is what McCain's legendary "Straight Talk Express" has become -- no huge bus and accompanying entourage -- just simply the Arizona senator, an aide carrying a briefcase, on a crowded commercial flight and a fairly anonymous arrival at Columbia's airport for two days of campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.

At Washington's National Airport, McCain watched the electronic flight schedule warily, knowing he'd make his engagements "if the plane is on time," he said gamely. His flight was a half hour late in taking off and there were no first class seats.

McCain's campaign for the November 2008 election hit hard times when donations dried to a trickle after his stance in favor of a U.S. immigration overhaul angered conservatives, and an operation built for $100 million had to be stripped to the bone.

His support for the Iraq war has also cost him in public opinion polls.

Given a warm reception at the monthly meeting of Columbia's Rotary Club, a crowd that included a number of undecided Republican voters, McCain said campaign money is not everything.

"This is what elections and politics in America should be all about -- face-to-face meetings ... not who can buy the most media," he said. "That's why I'm going to be the next president of the United States -- because I can out-campaign any of them."

With former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney boasting about winning the Iowa straw poll on Saturday, McCain said he had no regrets about not competing for votes there and would still compete in Iowa's opening caucuses next January. He finished nearly dead last in the nonbinding mock election with 101 votes to Romney's 14,000.

"I thought it would be zero," McCain told reporters. "I think straw polls are meaningless."

If McCain's campaign is to make a comeback, it may well take place in the small gatherings he is presiding over in the early voting states of New Hampshire and South Carolina.

After the beating he took over his support for a temporary guest worker program for illegal immigrants, he has changed his position to emphasize border security first "in order to restore a sense of trust and confidence in the American people," as he told Rotarians.

On Iraq, he said he believes in President George W. Bush's troop buildup and that a mid-September report by Gen. David Petraeus will say it has been successful but Iraqi political reforms are still lagging.

"We are winning, the strategy is winning," he said, while denouncing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as one of the worst defense secretaries in U.S. history.

McCain also made another change after being criticized by fellow Republicans for not emphasizing his war-hero status earlier this year. He was introduced by fellow former Vietnam prisoner of war Jack Van Loan.

And despite his campaign's problems, McCain still maintains his self-deprecating humor, sprinkling jokes throughout his appearance, like man who approached him and said:

"'Did anybody ever tell you, you look like Senator John McCain?' I said yes. He said, 'Doesn't that make you mad as heck?'"