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Despite all that, Republicans say that if anyone gives them an opportunity to overcome the hurdles, it's McCain. They argue that he's not a typical GOP candidate and claim he has a necessary broad appeal for the times. They say his reputation for bucking the GOP on salient issues like climate change allows him to reach beyond the traditional Republican base when the party's ''brand'' is broken to attract independents and moderate Democrats.

''Both candidates will represent change. The question will be the right type of change versus the wrong kind of change,'' said Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist for McCain. ''Senator Obama's inexperience, his lack of judgment, his naivete, his lack of accomplishment will all be part of the debate.''

So will ideology.

''There is an overwhelming difference between the right-of-center John McCain and the most liberal member of the Senate, Barack Obama,'' said Frank Donatelli, the Republican National Committee's deputy chairman. ''The contrast is great on the issues.''

Indeed, the GOP already is portraying the Democrat -- who honed his political skills in Chicago after attending Harvard University -- as a big-government advocate who wants to raise capital-gains taxes and recklessly pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and is willing to meet with leaders of U.S. enemy nations.

''By all yardsticks, this man is a legitimate leftist candidate,'' said Ron Kaufman, a veteran GOP strategist. ''The good news is you don't have to paint him as that. You just need a mirror.''

Dismissing the criticism, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said: ''This is less about left and right. It's about which candidate is going to take this country in a new direction.''

Democrats claim McCain is not that candidate, and they argue that he offers nothing more than a continuation of eight years of Bush's ''failed'' policies on Iraq and the economy.

McCain, in response, points to his record of challenging the party line on those and other issues.

Mindful that the unpopular Bush is a liability, McCain has started to distance himself from the president in speeches that encapsulate his own vision. Still, McCain is signaling he will use Bush where necessary; the two, for example, are appearing at a joint fundraiser later this month.

McCain is taking a campaign approach unlike Bush's elections in 2000 and 2004, which emphasized turning out the party's base. Rather, McCain has started shifting to the electorate's center, a recognition of his ideological reach as well as the need to capture swing voters against an opponent who also attracts independents.

He hopes his crusade against climate change -- an issue that appeals to people of all stripes -- will help him build a winning coalition of voters.

To do so, McCain is targeting traditional swing voting groups, like independents and Catholics, as well as others where Obama has shown weakness in the primaries, among them conservative-leaning so-called Reagan Democrats, blue-collar whites, Jews and Hispanics.

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