It was a surprisingly bold statement for a candidate whose superstitions about the campaign are well known. Throughout the race so far McCain has gone out of his way not to seem too confident in a win—rejecting advice from his top aides to forcefully seize the mantle of Republican front runner. Even when the crowds and the momentum seemed to be on his side in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida, McCain was a bundle of nerves, refusing until the last possible moment to accept that he was really going to win. “You know me,” McCain often says. “I am just too superstitious about this stuff.”
Indeed, McCain’s air of confidence over the weekend proved to be only temporary. Speaking to reporters after a rally Monday morning in Boston, Mitt Romney’s backyard, the old overly-cautious McCain was back, scolding a reporter who had dared to suggest the senator had been so bold as to suggest he’d lock up the nomination on Super Tuesday. “I am not predicting that,” McCain insisted. “I am not predicting, I am not predicting … I am guardedly confident that we can do well. [But] I’ve seen more than one election go against what the polls show.”
Still, his ground game suggests he’s managing to keep his darkest fears at bay. While Romney has been campaigning almost frantically in the final days before Super Tuesday, crossing the country from east to west and back, McCain has taken a more relaxed route. On Saturday, his busiest day, McCain hit three states—Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee—before ending up in the Northeast, where he has spent the last two days. On Sunday he held a rally in Connecticut. On Monday he held two rallies, in Boston and near Trenton, N.J., before ending up in New York City, where he held a press conference and a Tuesday-morning rally outside the “Today” show studios in Rockefeller Center.
Indeed, McCain seems to have put more focus lately on raising money than on shaking hands. Since the Florida primary he has held six finance events, including one in Boston on Monday morning and two in New York last night.
Perhaps the only sign of nerves from the McCain campaign: a last-minute stop late Tuesday afternoon in California, where polls show the race has tightened in the last few days. McCain is set to speak to supporters at an airport rally in San Diego, an event that likely won’t attract many undecided voters but could land him some valuable airtime on the local news just before the polls close. Afterward McCain will head to Phoenix, where he’ll watch the election returns.
Speaking to reporters after a rally in New Jersey, McCain insisted again that he wasn’t expecting to wrap up the nomination on Tuesday. “I am predicting nothing,” he repeated, insisting that he was merely “guardedly optimistic” and that he was “prepared to continue the campaign.”
