New polling shows John McCain poised to win tomorrow’s New Hampshire primary, although it remains unclear whether he can go the distance to secure the Republican nomination.
The Arizona senator appeared ebullient and even playful on several Sunday talk shows, although he cautioned that he has not yet defeated his closest rival here, Mitt Romney.
“A lot of voters in New Hampshire, we all know, make up their minds in the last few hours or even when they go into the ballot booth,” McCain told NBC. “So we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
Romney had been the undisputed front-runner in New Hampshire since May, but lost the lead in recent days to McCain, who is now ahead by 4.6 percent, according to Real Clear Politics.
“Six weeks ago I never would have thought that,” marveled Bob Schieffer of CBS.
“Well, Bob, that just shows that you’re not very bright,” McCain joked. “Or prescient.”
McCain is counting on replicating his 2000 win in New Hampshire by appealing to independent voters, who can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries. But this time around, many or most of those independent voters are expected to turn out instead for Barack Obama.
“We don’t know how many of these so-called independent voters are actually going to vote,” shrugged McCain. “I’m kind of flattered that it seems that only Senator Obama and I are competing for the independent voters.”
Even if McCain wins in New Hampshire, he would face a tough fight a week later in Michigan, where he is seven points behind Romney. Four days later, McCain would face an even bigger challenge in South Carolina, where he has only half the support of Mike Huckabee.
