Time to rewrite McCain's political obituary

By Steve Holland - Analysis

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - It is time to rewrite John McCain's political obituary.

The 71-year-old U.S. presidential hopeful's victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday means that the Republican nomination is anyone's to win 10 months before Americans elect a president.

"He came back from the dead," Mark McKinnon, McCain's senior adviser, told Fox News. "We did it with spit and glue, no money."

Six months ago McCain was counted out. Short on cash, he suffered because of his support for the Iraq war and for a plan to give illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

"Tonight, we sure showed them what a comeback looks like," McCain told supporters after U.S. television networks projected him the winner. "Mac is back, Mac is back," the crowd shouted.

New Hampshire's primary is the second high-profile battleground, following Iowa, in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush.

If elected to the White House, McCain would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term.

Left reeling was the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, who again finished second, as he did last week in Iowa. He needs a win in Michigan on January 15.

A third-place finish for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee showed his limitations. He won Iowa with backing from Christian evangelicals and will now turn his attention to South Carolina on January 19.

Lurking in the background is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the tough-on-terrorism candidate who did not do well in New Hampshire or Iowa but has been courting Florida and the big states like New York and California that vote on February 5.

"It means the (Republican) race is still very much wide open," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.

He spoke while still up in the air was the winner of the state's Democratic race between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

MAVERICK

McCain is a maverick who frequently breaks with the traditional Republican leadership, including Bush.

He never wavered from his support for the Iraq war but he did bitterly criticize the past strategy engineered by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.