The battle of perceptions at the top of the Republican Party has just got a little more difficult for favourite George W. Bush.
He was soundly beaten in Tuesday's presidential nomination primaries in Arizona and Michigan, chiefly by the broad character-based appeal of the former Vietnam prisoner of war who wants to get the cash out of politics.
It is not a topic that endears Senator McCain to the Republican establishment, a wealthy elite that turned out staunchly behind Mr Bush, but it is proving hot with disenchanted Democrats and other independents. Both men are moderates but Senator McCain is pushing the politics of inclusion harder than Mr Bush whose 'compassionate conservatism' still has to be fully fleshed out.
Senator McCain is now offering an 'optimistic, welcoming conservatism' that does not offer the same tax cuts and is more radical in its political cash reform - something the Arizona senator puts at the core of much of Washington's problems, from foreign policy to health care.
His air of moral courage after more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam gives him credibility and patriotic reach far beyond the traditional Republican stalwart. Knowing he has the backing of the party establishment - including virtually all state governors and senators - Mr Bush was yesterday claiming sole legitimacy, however.
'It's Republicans and like-minded independents who, at the end of the day, are going to make the decisions in these Republican primaries,' Mr Bush said, safe in the knowledge that several large upcoming events are closed to party members only.