“You know, and I say to my friend, Newt, politics isn’t beanbag; it’s a tough business,” McCain told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity Wednesday night. “And I respect Newt’s record. I don’t agree with a lot of the things that he did. But at the same time, I understand why he might be a little upset, and he sounds very upset. But that isn’t the way you win elections. The way you win elections is to come forward with your own positive agenda, which is exactly what Mitt has been doing all along.”…

“He was sitting very well for a period of time,” McCain said of Gingrich. “He kind of had a succession of people who have gone up and then gone down, while Mitt has been putting one foot ahead of the other and maintaining a steady strength and has been going up. He is going to do well here in New Hampshire. And I am confident he will do well in South Carolina and in Florida. And again, to say that the Iowa caucuses, who were something that was expected, it was not. I mean, it shows that the campaign has been gaining traction.”