Perhaps you've heard - these are not the best of times for John McCain's presidential campaign. Two top advisers departed the campaign Tuesday. McCain has laid off scores of staff. Money is tight. The polls aren't looking good.

What if you're a Republican political junkie who left his home state to cast his lot with the 2008 McCain campaign?

"I'm hanging in there," said Jim Barnett, the Barre native and former chairman of the Vermont Republican Party who is New Hampshire campaign manager and New England political director for McCain's campaign.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report as saying, "I don't know how they right the ship." You can read about that HERE.

Is the Bulldog discouraged by recent events? "Not at all," he said Tuesday. If he were discouraged, it's not like he would say so to me, but he's also the sort to keep bouncing back up like one of those inflatable punching bags.

Sounding like a corporate executive trying to appeal to Wall Street, Barnett said McCain had to make some changes to show he was righting the ship. "The signal that is being sent is there does need to be a change of course. We need to get back to the John McCain core message," Barnett said.

Barnett reels off pieces of that message: Ending fiscal irresponsibility, winning the war against Islamic terrorism, making the country secure. He is living and breathing John McCain. So I asked him if he could get used to touting someone else's message. Could be substitute the McCain, McCain, McCain in his every sentence with Romney, Guiliani or Thompson?

"I expect to be working for Senator McCain right through the Republican National Convention and into November," Barnett said.

- Terri Hallenbeck