WASHINGTON (AFP) — Presidential hopeful John McCain has revived his once moribund campaign and now leads the Republican field in the crucial state of New Hampshire, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The Arizona senator was written off as a White House contender months ago but has steadily fought his way back in the fluid nomination race, with the 7News/Suffolk University poll showing McCain surpassing rival Mitt Romney in New Hampshire.
The survey had McCain with 31 percent to Romney's 25 percent in the northeastern state, which holds the first primary vote on January 8 in the tight nomination race.
Last month, McCain was trailing Romney by 12 percentage points. It was a remarkable comeback for McCain, and the first time the senator had led the Republican camp since 7News/Suffolk University started polling in March.
McCain has spent little time campaigning for the caucuses in Iowa on Thursday -- the first contest in the nomination race -- and is pinning his hopes on a come-from-behind triumph in New Hampshire five days later.
The Vietnam war veteran was initially seen as the Republican front-runner, but his campaign nearly ran aground in 2007 amid weak fundraising and unpopular stands on the Iraq war and illegal immigration.
But McCain, 71, who had long urged more troops in Iraq, has pointed to signs of progress in the current US troop "surge" strategy as vindication of his stance and proof that he has the best judgment on national security matters.
McCain has also benefited from the absence of any clear frontrunner in the Republican field.
His campaign team on Tuesday announced a new web advertisement touting the senator's experience on foreign policy and national security issues compared to Romney.
The ad shows footage of bombings abroad and masked, armed militants without specifying where the footage was taken and then an announcer says: "Mitt Romney says the next president doesn't need foreign policy experience. John McCain for president."
The campaign also cited in a release criticism of Romney's foreign policy judgment by the New York Post, former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger and ex-CIA director James Woolsey.
"We couldn't disagree more with governor Mitt Romney's recent suggestion that foreign policy experience really doesn't matter when it comes to evaluating who should be our next president and commander in chief," Eagleburger and Woolsey said in a joint statement.
McCain has recently enjoyed some high-profile endorsements, including one from the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper and from Democrat-turned-independent Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Lieberman, who served as Democrat presidential nominee Al Gore's running mate in 2000, was scheduled to join McCain on the campaign trail on Wednesday in New Hampshire.
Independents will be important in the New Hampshire primary on January 8, and McCain's effort to court them may get a boost from Lieberman, who broke ranks with Democrats over the Iraq war.
In his 2000 bid for the White House, McCain scored an upset victory over George W. Bush in New Hampshire boosted by independents, but Bush secured the Republican nomination in the end with the help of religious conservatives.
McCain has since tried to forge ties with the Christian right but often looked uncomfortable in the effort.
The 7News/Suffolk University survey of likely voters in the New Hampshire primary contest was conducted from Thursday to Monday with a margin of error of 5.65 percent for each party sample of 300 respondents.
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