Zvone Radikalni

IT IS hard to believe that John McCain is relaunching his presidential campaign. After all, that campaign is the longest-running show in American politics. Mr McCain is a fixture on the talk-shows—and a bit-player in such low-brow comedies as “The Wedding Crashers”.

But “relaunch” is hardly too strong a word for it. Mr McCain has delayed the formal announcement of his presidential bid until the end of the month. He is making room for three “major” policy speeches, and is revamping his fund-raising apparatus to make it more like the Bush machine that crushed him in the 2000 presidential campaign. He has also made room for a “blogger conference call”, to give the impression that he is both accessible and au fait with modern technology.

He has little choice but to do something drastic. For weeks he has been trailing Rudy Giuliani both in the polls and in the fund-raising race. He had hoped that he would build such a powerful machine that his conservative critics would line up behind him; instead, the machine is so rickety that ex-friends in the media are lining up to write his obituary.

The relaunching process got off to a dismal start. Mr McCain began by sort-of-apologising for a recent stroll through a Baghdad market that did little to burnish the image of the straight talker of legend. The market was much safer than it used to be, he claimed, while being clearly guarded by a legion of soldiers and a phalanx of helicopter gunships.

He faces plenty of obstacles. The long-time crusader against money in politics needs to turn himself into a fund-raising machine. And the long-time maverick needs to placate conservative interest groups. All the same, it is too early to write him off.

Mr McCain is adopting a high-risk strategy for success: he is backing George Bush's Iraq surge to the hilt. On April 11th, the day of the original official launch, he gave a vigorous speech at the Virginia Military Institute arguing that the war is essential for America's national security and suggesting that the surge is beginning to work. This may prove disastrous. Around 60% of the public regards the war as a mistake, and Republican loyalists are falling over themselves to denounce Mr Bush.

But equally it may be the shot in the arm that Mr McCain needs. He plainly believes what he is saying. So the straight talker is back, but this time defending an unpopular cause. He lambasted congressional Democrats for cheering when they voted to defund the war. “What were they celebrating? Defeat? Surrender?”

He has perfect credentials for this stance, ranging from his own background in the navy to the fact that he has criticised Mr Bush's botched execution of the occupation from the start. And 70% of Republican voters still say that they think the war was worth waging.

A prominent Democratic congressman, observing Mr McCain's difficulties, notes—not entirely without sympathy—that “in politics it's a lot easier to lose your friends than it is to win over your enemies.” It is true that some conservatives, such as James Dobson, a right-wing religious leader, and the Club for Growth, which supports the Reagan “vision”, will never support him. But there are also signs that other conservatives are beginning to take a second look. Both the Weekly Standard and the National Review have published cover articles making the case for him.

Mr McCain has more foreign-policy and military experience than the rest of the Republican field combined. He has a more solid conservative record than either Mr Giuliani (who recently scandalised conservatives by saying that he supports public funding for abortion) or Mitt Romney (who turns out to be something of a serial panderer). And he is clearly willing to stick to his guns on an unpopular issue. Conservatives would be foolish not to ponder the contention, put forward by Senator Lindsey Graham, that Mr McCain represents the best combination of “conservatism and electability” available.

It is not unusual for front-runners to stumble in American primaries. Al Gore was so worried that he would lose to Bill Bradley that he moved his campaign headquarters to Nashville and swapped blue suits for earth tones. John Kerry once mortgaged one of his houses to keep his campaign afloat. George Bush senior and Bob Dole both struggled to win the Republican nomination in 1988 and 1996. Mr McCain, now aged 70, could yet become the oldest comeback kid in American history.