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McCain Effort Has New Slogan: 'No Surrender'

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By MICHAEL COOPER, The New York Times

Published: September 13, 2007

WATERLOO, Iowa - Sen. John McCain's famous 'Straight Talk Express' was gone, replaced by a bus emblazoned with a sign reading 'No Surrender.'

McCain and a group of veterans - including former prisoners of war who were held with him in Vietnam and newly minted Iraq veterans - piled into the bus and drove across Iowa, stopping in VFW posts and American Legion halls to argue that the current strategy in Iraq is working and that Democrats and wavering Republicans who want to withdraw the troops now are making a terrible mistake.

'If we leave, there will be chaos and genocide in the region, and we will be back,' McCain said Wednesday at VFW Post 737 in Council Bluffs, vowing to lead the debate on the Senate floor for keeping the troops in Iraq and warning that Iran would step into the void if the United States pulls out. The veterans in the packed hall, who wore blue 'No Surrender' stickers, cheered.

The phrase 'No Surrender' also could be applied to the McCain campaign. It was practically written off over the summer when it nearly ran out of money, forcing it to reduce its staff sharply and scale back its operations in all but three states, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

In a trip here last month, McCain was asked by local reporters at nearly every stop of the way whether he was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

No one asked this week whether he was dropping out. The campaign, buoyed by good reviews McCain received last week at a debate in New Hampshire and by the prospect of his taking on a high-profile role in the Senate debate over Iraq, is very much hoping that it is beginning a comeback.

'All we need is a little money, my friends,' he said.

On the road, the campaign is drawing enthusiastic crowds. The tour began Tuesday in Sioux City in a hangar at Col. Bud Day Field, where McCain was introduced by Day, a Medal of Honor recipient who nursed McCain back to health when they were both held prisoner in North Vietnam.

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