"C'mere, McCain," Dole growled, and they were off.

But to Sen. John McCain, riding along on Dole's "Leader's Ship" was more than a favor for a friend; it was a flying seminar on how -- and how not -- to run his own White House bid four years later.

"Dole's plane is where I really firmed up the plans," McCain recalled recently, as his campaign bus rolled through New Hampshire. "I learned a lot about how you do something like this. A lot."

No lesson, however, could have prepared him for Texas Gov. George W. Bush's unprecedented $67 million White House bid. McCain has stumbled against the competition on issues ranging from gays to taxes, his Commerce Committee chairmanship and the sheer challenge of sending his staff of 85 into battle against Bush's army of 200 aides.

While trailing Bush elsewhere in the country, McCain has tied or surpassed the GOP presidential front-runner in New Hampshire, home of the nation's first primary Feb. 1. And that status as a serious challenger, McCain says, paints a big target on his back.

"When you see a campaign get traction, it gets very tough," he said earlier this month. "I have every reason to think it's gonna get tougher."

It has, and McCain has nearly hit his own bull's-eye more than once.

One of the key lessons he says he learned from Dole is that if reporters want access to the candidate, give them more than they can use.

Unlike Dole, whose aides tried to stem the flow of gaffes by keeping him at a distance, thus angering reporters, McCain sits at the center of his traveling press corps whenever he is on the bus in between campaign stops.

"Kill 'em with access," the Arizona senator says, with a wink.

But his blunt-spoken style and a bawdy sense of humor makes such freewheeling risky, as McCain has learned. He was criticized for saying this week that he can tell "by behavior and by attitudes" whether a person is homosexual.

He later promised to stick to a more disciplined answer. "I intended to say, 'don't ask, don't tell.' That's how I'll answer it from now on," he said.

Another lesson from Dole, McCain said, was to make sure that he, the candidate, makes the major campaign decisions rather than leaving them to aides and consultants.

But as McCain is learning, that's not always possible with an expanding, but still badly outnumbered staff.

Earlier this month, Bush bluffed McCain into releasing details of his tax-cut plan as it was being written.

A week before McCain had planned a Jan. 11 announcement, Bush slammed a proposal McCain had put forward last year to help end the budget standoff between Congress and President Clinton. McCain was forced to correct the record with elements of the yet-to-be-released tax-cut plan.

But the correction contained what McCain later admitted was a "cheap shot" at Bush, a press release handed out at the back of a room as McCain stood up front appealing for a contest free of personal attacks.

"McCain's Mature Vision for America's Future vs. Bush's Political Plan for the 2000 Election," read the headline. McCain's denunciation of the flier didn't stop his campaign from posting it on his Web site later that day.

McCain also has caused his own problems by participating in the same campaign finance system he has condemned during his crusade to end big money's influence over government.

As Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, McCain has written letters to federal agencies on behalf of major contributors, prompting criticism that their money has bought them more access, just like the contributors of other senators.

And he also has come under fire for accepting favors, ranging from private jet travel to fund-raisers, from companies overseen by the Commerce Committee.

McCain says he has only prodded federal agencies to act, not on which decision to make. "We're all tainted by the process," he says repeatedly.

McCain says he cannot avoid the appearance of conflict arising from his committee chairmanship because the panel regulates more than 80 percent of the nation's companies. To stay in business as a politician, he says, he has to play within the system until he succeeds in changing it.