Read our US elections blog: Across the Pond

When John McCain’s front-running presidential campaign fell apart six months ago, even his greatest admirers said that he needed a miracle to revive it.

Suddenly, that miracle appears to have arrived in the form of Mike Huckabee, whose extraordinary surge in Iowa has handed Mr McCain his best chance of a comeback — more than 1,000 miles away. In the frozen towns and hamlets of New Hampshire, Mr McCain is suddenly bounding over icy pavements and into crowded diners with the Granite State’s bitterly cold winds very much at his back.

The prospect of Mr Huckabee winning Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on January 3 has thrown Mr McCain an unexpected lifeline by upending the campaign of Mitt Romney. Mr Romney, the Mormon who has raised and spent more money than any of his Republican rivals, had staked all on winning both the early states to propel him on to the nomination.

Now, with Mr Huckabee having emerged as the surprise Republican package in Iowa, Mr Romney faces a do-or-die fight in New Hampshire — the same as Mr McCain.

The pair are now battling to present themselves as the one viable Republican alternative to Mr Huckabee and his Southern brand of religious conservatism. It is a fight between two very different candidates.

On Tuesday Mr McCain, who has been outspent heavily by Romney in New Hampshire, walked into Concord’s state library, his trousers creased, an ill-fitting sweater underneath his jacket. Just before he entered, a picture of him as a naval pilot, taken before his 5½ years as a prisoner in Vietnam, fell off its easel. It was a distinctly low-budget affair.

Mr McCain reminded his audience that New Hampshire was the scene of his greatest electoral triumph, his insurgent primary victory over George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign. He cited a string of endorsements this week, including that of the Des Moines Register in Iowa, and most notably, the Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s 2000 running mate. The liberal Boston Globe has also backed him, as has New Hampshire’s conservative Manchester Union Leader.

“This nation faces issues of transcendent importance,” Mr McCain said. “We must come together as a nation, Republicans, Democrats and independents.” He said he was the one candidate able to “reach across the aisle, to break the deadlock in Washington”. In a state where 44 per cent of voters are registered as “undeclared”, Mr McCain said: “I believe we can carry, as we did in 2000, the overwhelming majority of independents.”

This is a tall order — most independents in New Hampshire this year are Democratic-leaning and few are undecided — but Mr McCain’s message was clear: he was the candidate with the experience and the cross-party appeal to confront America’s challenges. He referred often to his “straight talk”, a contrast he likes to make against the changes in position on issues such as abortion and immigration that have dogged Mr Romney.

Reversing a pledge not to attack his rivals, Mr McCain released a new advertisement last night calling Mr Romney a flip-flopper whom “voters can’t trust”. He then marched down to the Barley House, a pub where the beer was already flowing at 11.50am, signed autographs, shook hands, posed for pictures and cracked jokes.

A 30-minute drive from the Barley House, Mr Romney stands in the steel and glass splendour of Insight Technology, a defence contractor. His shirt is pressed, hair immaculate, his presentation slick.

It is the embodiment of a campaign that has been accused of being a passionless, paint-by-numbers effort. In a sign of how that criticism is hitting home, Mr Romney for the second time this week held back tears, this time when telling the story of a dead US soldier’s return in a coffin to Boston airport. He has recounted it hundreds of times on the campaign trail, but never with a moist eye.

Mr McCain’s campaign suffered a near-fatal break-up in June, when it emerged that it was barely solvent and riven with dissent. His top aides left or were fired. Donors deserted. Mr McCain retreated to New Hampshire, and has revived his fortunes. A month ago, he was polling just over 10 per cent in the Granite State. The latest survey had him up to 22 — 11 points behind Mr Romney. “I still have much to do,” Mr McCain said, correctly. “But I am sensing a change.”

In an extraordinarily volatile Republican race, Mr McCain has also been helped by a slide in the polls for the longtime front-runner, Rudy Giuliani. For Mr McCain, therefore, victory over Mr Romney on January 8 in New Hampshire carries far more potential weight than even a month ago. Mr Romney has always said that he expected a head-to-head competitor in Iowa. “But I didn’t think it would be Mike Huckabee,” he said on Monday. Neither did Mr McCain.

THE LATEST POLLS

Republican voters in Iowa

Huckabee 34.0%

Romney 23.3%

Giuliani 9.8%

Thompson 9.5%

McCain 5.8%

Republican voters in New Hampshire

Romney 32.0%

McCain 18.5%

Giuliani 16.5%

Huckabee 11.0%

Paul 7.0%

Source: Real Clear Politics

Times Recommends

• A life online: God likes a laugh
• How the Saints won the hearts of the nation
• Sri Lanka opposition leader held for 'coup'