RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The word last night from the supporters of John McCain was Mac is back. He won the New Hampshire primary, handily beating fellow Republican Mitt Romney. Just six months ago, people were writing off Senator McCain's bid for the presidency. His campaign was nearly broke. He was laying off staff. Then he poured all of his energy and resources into New Hampshire. Steve Schmidt is a senior communications advisor for Senator McCain, and he joins us on the line from Grand Rapids, Michigan, the state where the next contest is. Hello.
Mr. STEVE SCHMIDT (Senior Communications Advisor, McCain Campaign): Hi. Good morning. It's great to be with you.
MONTAGNE: Now, can Senator McCain continue to run the same kind of campaign, given all the primaries coming at him over the next few weeks - this sort of intense, tireless campaigning that he's been doing?
Mr. SCHMIDT: Well, we've planned for, and we're ready for it. We're in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There's a thousand people here waiting for Senator McCain to come out and talk to them. We're able to do it. It's on to South Carolina after that, then to Florida. And, of course, we have a de facto national primary day on February 5th. But Senator McCain has the momentum in this race. We feel very, very good about our chances of winning here in Michigan. It's a state that John McCain won eight years ago. He's ready to be commander-in-chief. He has plans for the economy. He's going to fix a broken system in Washington. He's running a positive campaign, telling people the truth. And he was rewarded for it last night in New Hampshire with that magnificent victory.
MONTAGNE: Michigan may have belonged to John McCain four years ago - or the last time around. But Mitt Romney thinks he owns Michigan this time around. His father was governor.
Mr. SCHMIDT: We'll see. It's - Mitt Romney was saying that he was going to win in Iowa, that he was going to win in New Hampshire. And, you know, I think that people are getting sick and tired of the negative campaigning, and I think that's hurt Mitt Romney very badly. It's been a bombardment of negative ads, outspending, you know, both Governor Huckabee in Iowa and Senator McCain in New Hampshire. And I think people are tired of it. And I think that John McCain has been to Michigan many times. He has a worker retraining program. He has policies to help the people in Michigan where there's a deep, deep recession, and a lot of hard-working people have lost their jobs. The economy's in tough shape. And Senator McCain has prescriptions and answers for it.
MONTAGNE: Well, let's go briefly to South Carolina, where Senator McCain did not win in 2000. He lost. Mike Huckabee would seem to appeal to conservative Christian voters there. What's he going to do there?
Mr. SCHMIDT: Well, South Carolina, of course, is going to be a tough contest. It's eight years later. We have a lot of support from a lot of key leaders in the political establishment in South Carolina that Senator McCain didn't have eight years ago, led by the great senator from that state, Lindsey Graham. Fred Thompson is down in South Carolina, also. So it's going to be a three-way race, assuming we win against Governor Romney here in Michigan. So we're excited. We're looking forward to South Carolina. We'll be in South Carolina. Senator McCain'll be in South Carolina later today.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. SCHMIDT: You bet. Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Steve Schmidt is a senior communications advisor to Senator John McCain's campaigning. He joined us just now on the line from Grand Rapids, Michigan.