Republican Senator John McCain's waning White House bid was rocked on Tuesday by the loss of its top two strategists, as they paid the price for shaky fundraising and plunging poll numbers.
News broke that campaign manager Terry Nelson and top consultant John Weaver had quit as McCain was on the floor of the US Senate backing US policy on Iraq -- the issue that has done more than anything to dent his campaign.
Once the presumed Republican establishment front-runner, McCain, a Vietnam War hero, is now short of cash, alienated from many key conservative voters and facing questions over whether his 2008 crusade is about to fall apart.
"Every campaign has ups and downs ... I am very happy with where the campaign is," he told a crush of reporters on Capitol Hill.
McCain has tied his White House bid to President George W. Bush's unpopular troop surge strategy in Iraq, warning that an early withdrawal would be tantamount to handing the country over to al-Qaeda.
He also dismayed many conservatives key to the Republican race by backing Bush's immigration reform drive which collapsed in the Senate last month, killed off by opponents who branded it an "amnesty" for illegal workers.
McCain has failed to recreate the maverick spirit of his plain-spoken 2000 campaign for the Republican nomination, where he gave eventual nominee George W. Bush a serious run for his money.
Slumping in opinion polls, the 70-year-old Arizona senator was left with only US$2 million dollars in the bank after a limp second-quarter 2007 fundraising drive which wound up last week.
In total this year, he has raised around 24 million dollars, but aides admitted last week they had assembled a bloated operation that was spending money as fast as it could raise it.
Nelson, who some reports said was fired after McCain got back from a trip to Iraq, was already working without pay in a bid to cut costs, after the campaign reportedly fired 50 campaign workers last week.
Recent polls of the Republican field have shown McCain, once the presumed establishment front-runner in the Republican field, shedding support, and trailing former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.
Both McCain's ex-aides issued statements praising their former boss, and his campaign's chief-executive Rick Davis stepped in as campaign manager.
"This campaign has always been about John McCain and his vision for reducing federal spending, defending traditional values, and winning the war against Islamic extremists," Davis said.
"Today we are moving forward with John's optimistic vision for our country's future," he said.
In a message to supporters late Tuesday, McCain tried to rescue his White House dreams.
"Challenges are nothing new to me. Whether political challenges, physical challenges or even personal challenges -- how you stand up, face them and move forward defines your character and your strength," he said.
An American Research Group poll in early-voting state Iowa between June 26 and 30 published on Monday had McCain in fourth place on just 13 percent, behind leader Romney, Giuliani and former senator Fred Thompson, who has yet to formally enter the presidential race.
The same polling firm had McCain third in another crucial early state, New Hampshire, behind Romney and Giuliani.
Shot down as a naval aviator over North Vietnam in 1967, McCain was captured by an angry mob, beaten, bayoneted in the groin, and taken prisoner.
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