The Big Mac is back. The television cameras are following him again, the town halls are filling once more and the self proclaimed “older than dirt” Senator John McCain has got a spring in his arthritic step.

With a little help from his co-runners in the Republican New Hampshire debate, John McCain left Mitt Romney bruised and may claim Bill Clinton’s old title of Comeback Kid if the polls are anything to go by.

McCain had been cautious about saying how he’ll do in the New Hampshire primary, but “he has tossed more and more of that caution aside in recent days,” reports ABC News.  Talking to reporters after the event in Peterborough, he said, “maybe we’ve caught some lightening in a bottle … Maybe a sparkle.”

In his attack on Romney’s attack ads on his record on immigration, McCain left a mark. Romney misstepped by saying that his ads did not accuse McCain of offering illegal immigrants amnesty, when in fact they do. Meanwhile, McCain claims that he never actually proposed amnesty for certain groups of illegal immigrants.

Confused? So’s McCain, says Howie Carr in The Boston Herald. “John McCain is old – very old. Which may explain his abject confusion about whether he supports amnesty for 20 million illegal aliens,” says Carr.

According to Carr, “…last spring McCain…put together a grandiose scheme to grant amnesty to millions upon millions of foreign invaders. It was so outrageous they refused to hold hearings on it. The bill went down in flames, twice, and so did McCain’s campaign for almost a year.”

The hot topic of immigration has been a hallmark of the Republican debates so far. It’s seen as an issue the Republican party owns but “…while ‘amnesty’ is a political death sentence, so is mass deportation — the only element of the immigration debate that would play into the hands of the Democrats who otherwise lose big on the issue,” writes Victor Davis Hanson in The Wall Street Journal. 

Meanwhile, inspired by the wave Obama is currently riding, Romney is recasting himself as the “change” candidate after being thumped by Mike Huckabee in Iowa. “Mr. Romney is now presenting himself as that man, the person who can transform Washington…”, writes Kimberley Strassel in RealClearPolitics.  But the danger in the “Romney Reinvention” is that it will cement the image of the former governor as a flip-flopper, says Strassel, “…it’s especially problematic in a state like New Hampshire, where voters witnessed Mr. Romney’s tenure as governor of nearby Massachusetts, and are better able than most to mark differences between then and now.”

And where’s golden Iowa kid Huckabee in all of this? He may not have a hope in New Hampshire, but he could be the strongest candidate that the Republicans have got, writes William Kristol in The New York Times.

“After the last two elections, featuring the well-born George Bush and Al Gore and John Kerry, Americans — even Republicans! — are ready for a likable regular guy. Huckabee seems to be that,” writes Kristol. “He came up from modest origins. He served as governor of Arkansas for more than a decade. He fought a successful battle against being overweight. These may not be utterly compelling qualifications for the presidency. I’m certainly not ready to sign up.”

Still, “in Iowa, Huckabee did something like what Obama did on the Democratic side, albeit on a smaller scale. He drew new voters to the caucuses. And he defeated Mitt Romney by almost two to one, and John McCain by better than four to one, among voters under 45.”

Meanwhile, former New York Mayor and serial lisper Rudy Giuliani is a “dud on the campaign trail,” says Sam Stein in The Huffington Post.

Although the Giuliani campaign has been pretty upfront about the fact that they’re not aiming to win New Hampshire, and are shooting for Super Tuesday instead, the uninspiring town hall meetings aren’t exactly a good look.

At a town hall in Hudson in south New Hampshire, writes Stein, “…there appeared to be as many attendees (less than 100) as there were members of the press. Younger voters were virtually non-existent. By one count, five were in attendance, the majority of whom appeared to be under the voting age. Journalists who have long covered Giuliani said such dynamics were not uncommon.”

The most dramatic moment of the whole affair — save for the “Rudy” movie theme music that accompanied the mayor’s entrance and exit — “came when he opened up the discussion for questions and answers,” says Stein.  

“‘Why don’t you end baby killing, when will you end baby killing?’ screamed an attendee from the back, before being forced to leave the building.”