WASHINGTON - US Senator John McCain is staking out high-risk positions on Iraq and immigration, as he seeks to revive his slow-starting campaign in the crammed 2008 Republican White House race.
The Vietnam war veteran, toppled from his place as presumed Republican establishment candidate, is showing signs of reverting to the straight-talking style with which he gave George W. Bush a tough time in the 2000 Republican campaign.
In Tuesday's debate of 10 Republican candidates in New Hampshire, McCain, a former prisoner-of-war, mounted an impassioned defense of a Senate attempt to give 12 million illegal immigrants a path to US citizenship.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani had complained that the bill, cobbled together with the likes of the White House and Democratic senator Edward Kennedy, a hate-figure for the right, was a typical "Washington mess."
"What we have done is what you expect us to do, my friends, and that's come together ... and sit down and figure out an approach to this problem," McCain hit back.
Defending the immigration bill is perilous for McCain -- since it is opposed as "amnesty" by many of the conservative Republicans he is counting on for support in primary and caucus nominating contests next year.
Another Republican hopeful, former Massachussetts governor Mitt Romney, who also opposes the bill, wasted no time in trying to turn McCain's exposure on the issue to his advantage.
"I was very pleased ... Senator McCain and I were able to distinguish ourselves on the issue of immigration in a way that I think will be lasting in people's minds," Romney told Fox News after the debate.
McCain has also flouted political logic, mounting a fierce defense of President Bush's strategy to surge nearly 30,000 extra troops into Iraq -- a move that goes against broad public opinion.
While most Republicans support the surge, McCain's face and fate have been linked to its outcome like no other candidate.
In one of the high points of Tuesday's debate, McCain looked the emotional sister of a soldier killed in action straight in the eye.
"Ma'am, I want to tell you thank you for your brother's service and sacrifice to our country. We are proud of you, and your endurance, and we're proud of his sacrifice.
"I believe we have a strategy which can succeed, so that the sacrifice of your brother would not be in vain. That a whole 20 or 30 million people would have a chance to live a free life in an open society, and practice their religion -- no matter what those differences are.
"I believe if we fail, it will become a center of terrorism, and we will ask more young Americans to sacrifice as your brother did. This is long and hard and tough. But I think we can succeed, and God bless."
McCain's position, though heartfelt, runs counter to broad US public opinion, which overwhelmingly wants American forces home, polls show.
It may also become increasingly difficult for him in the Republican race, with first signs of a shift in conservative opinion on the war.
A recent poll by Strategic Vision of Republicans in midwestern Iowa, host of the crucial party caucuses next January, found 54 percent wanted US troops home within six months.
McCain has tried to limit some political damage by being unsparing in his criticism of Bush's management of the conflict.
"I'm going to give you a little straight talk," McCain told the sister of the dead soldier.
"This war was very badly mismanaged -- for a long time. And Americans have made great sacrifices, some of which were unnecessary because of mismanagement of the war -- mismanagement of this conflict."
Since losing out to Bush in 2000, McCain, an Arizona senator, has courted the conservative grass roots -- but often looked uncomfortable in the process.
He started the 2008 race as presumed front-runner, but has suffered from a slow start and weak fundraising in the first quarter, and was hurt by an unflattering video of him touring a Baghdad market in a flak jacket, under intense US military protection.
An average of recent polls by the website Real Clear Politics, has McCain trailing Giuliani by 27.2 percent to 16.5 percent. Screen actor Fred Thompson, soon to join the race, has 12.7 percent and Romney has 10.7 percent.

06/06/2007 18:04 GMT