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Opinion: McCain’s feeling cocky

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Manchester, N.H. -- John McCain beat the pack back to New Hampshire this evening, exuding a swagger and confidence that not so long ago would have been dismissed as wishful -- perhaps delusional -- thinking.

His time as the presumed front-runner in the Republican presidential race may be a distant memory, but the days when pundits of every stripe viewed his campaign as nothing less than dead in the water also are a thing of the past.

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In a sign of his improved fortunes, McCain this week added some last-minute stumping in Iowa to his schedule. He hoped for a decent showing there tonight; perhaps a third-place finish.

But New Hampshire is the state McCain loves best in the nominating process. His primary victory here was the highlight of his 2000 White House quest. And it was here -- town-hall meeting by town-hall meeting -- that over the past few months he slowly regained his footing. Now, he feels like he’s hit his stride.

McCain conducted a news conference at Manchester’s airport upon his arrival from Iowa, and The Times’ Maeve Reston reports he was asked if he expected to win New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday.

‘Oh yeah,’ he responded. ‘And not ‘expect;’ we will win.’

Recent polls in the state have found that could happen.

McCain also reveled in a new national poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center, that gave him the slightest of edges -- a margin within the survey’s margin of error -- over Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee.

Tongue firmly planted in cheek, McCain said: ‘It’s also startling how a certain candidate’s mood seems to have improved.

‘For many months, there was no good or decent poll in America; they were all lousy, none of them were accurate, none of them reflected the true opinion of the American people. And now all of a sudden, we’re getting totally accurate polls. It’s amazing, it’s startling how the pollsters improved in their ability to gauge the feelings and sentiments of the American people.’

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-- Don Frederick

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