![adoring.jpg](http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/adoring.jpg?w=375&h=500" width="375" height="500" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;"/></span></p>
<p>These girls were at the outskirts of a McCain rally today in Grand Rapids, MI. McCain flew to the state, whose caucus is Jan. 15, today to capitalize on the momentum of his New Hampshire win. Signs of how his fortunes have reversed are everywhere: Staff size has suddenly tripled. We’re on a really nice charter plane. And it’s suddenly much harder to talk to McCain. (“Things have changed,” one staffer told me. I took it globally.)</p>
<p>The rally was packed and rowdy. McCain could barely get through a sentence without being interrupted with applause or chants of the campaign’s new slogan: “The Mac is back.” McCain being McCain, he did take time out of his usual stump speech to tell the crowd that “I am aware that Michigan has lost jobs… and I have to tell you, they’re not coming back.”</p>
<p>McCain’s solution for those lost jobs relies on partnerships with community colleges to retrain workers for jobs in the new economy. It’s not a new idea — and I don’t know if it’s even the right idea — but it’s also not usually what people who have lost their jobs want to hear. Sometimes one suspects he goes out of his way to find what you might call “uncommon ground.”</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, one thing that hasn’t changed: The expression on the faces of his fans.</p>
<p>More pix <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22356480@N02/">here</a>.</p>
<p>I also want to remind those with the shortest of attention spans — I’m surprised you got this far! — that I’m still <a href="https://twitter.com/home">Twittering</a>.</p>
<p>(My colleague — in McCain coverage — Marc Santora has a nice <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/for-mccain-quiet-before-the-big-stage/index.html?hp">write up</a> of what the scene last night was like.)</p>
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Flickr: McCain in Michigan
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