Almost eight years ago John McCain’s 2000 presidential bid came to an acrimonious halt in South Carolina when his “Straight Talk Express” was derailed in part because of false rumours that he had fathered an illegitimate black child reports the Financial Times.
No one traced the precise origins of a whispering campaign that helped sway voters against Mr McCain in a state that remains the gateway to the Bible belt south. George W. Bush went on to win the South Carolina primary and the Republican nomination.
This time round, Mr McCain’s 2008 bid was already once written off in July when the 71-year-old senator sacked many of his senior campaign team and announced that he had raised less money than Ron Paul, a fringe libertarian Republican candidate.
But Mr McCain has pulled himself back and now polls within 10 percentage points of Rudy Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner – down from an 18-point national deficit in July.
Read it here: McCain Comeback