THE US:Long the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, Arizona senator John McCain has seen his campaign descend into turmoil this week following the resignation of four of his top aides.
The resignations follow the layoff of half of Mr McCain's campaign staff last week and the news that, although he raised $24 million since the start of 2007, he has less than $2 million cash in hand.
Campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver resigned on Tuesday morning, apparently after months of internal feuding in the campaign and deputy manager Reed Galen and political director Rob Jesmer left a few hours later.
Mr McCain said he would not abandon the presidential race and denied his campaign was in trouble.
"No, no, no, no. I'd describe the campaign as going well. I'm very happy with it," he said.
In fact, the campaign is in deep trouble and Mr McCain is trailing former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and former senator turned actor Fred Thompson in national polls and is even further behind in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
The senator, who almost cost George Bush the Republican nomination in 2000, has alienated much of his party's base by supporting comprehensive immigration reform and his steadfast support for Mr Bush's strategy in Iraq has left him out of step with most voters.
Mr McCain's image as a straight-talking maverick was tarnished last year when he accepted an invitation to speak at a college run by Evangelical firebrand Jerry Falwell, whom he had once described as "an agent of intolerance". His campaign's spendthrift ways have also exposed Mr McCain, who has long campaigned to cut waste in Washington, to ridicule.
Mr Giuliani's campaign endured a hiccup this week when his Southern campaign chairman, Louisiana senator David Vitter, admitted he had visited a prostitute and that his phone number was on a list held by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the "DC Madam".
A "family values" conservative who has opposed the right of gays and lesbians to marry, Mr Vitter was accused five years ago of visiting a prostitute in New Orleans but denied the claim.
This time, Mr Vitter apologised for "a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible".