It is time for John McCain to be Luke Skywalker again.

The other time he ran for president, Arizona’s seniorsenator was incessantly compared to the feisty young pilot who battled the galactic empire in “Star Wars.” To combat George W. Bush’s well-oiled and extraordinarily well-financed machine in the 2000 Republican race, McCain played the challenger role to perfection, drawing a loyal following because of his maverick attitude and his consistent candor. He was the anti-establishment figure in the race, railing against the corrupting influence of big money and even daring to take on the Christian evangelists who were then the pre-eminent power brokers in GOP politics.

Still, the lesson that McCain seemed compelled to draw from that campaign is difficult to dispute: Despite the grass-roots enthusiasm he fostered with those independent ways, he was decisively defeated early on. And so in planning his second national bid, there was every reason for him to decide to play it more like his victorious rival did in 2000.

From the outset, McCain and his advisers signaled that for 2008 he would run a reigning-empire campaign, the presumed front-runner for a party that historically confers nominations on those deemed next in line. He made peace with religious conservatives, boasted about his plans to raise $100 million and assembled a massive staff with more resemblance to Bush’s operation from seven years ago than to his own.

That has all gone away. After nearly running out of money, falling further behind in the polls and last week losing his top campaign operatives, Terry Nelson and John Weaver, McCain faces conventional wisdom that his campaign is all but over.

These obituaries could well prove premature.

For starters, McCain can take solace in the memories of recent presidential front-runners who survived meltdowns. John Kerry was written off in the final weeks before the 2004 primaries started. But after firing his campaign manager and infusing the campaign with his own money, the Massachusetts senator won both Iowa and New Hampshire and quickly secured the Democratic nomination. Al Gore also weathered major setbacks to his presumed inevitability for the 2000 Democratic nomination. But a massive staff shake-up, including relocation of his campaign headquarters to Tennessee, put the vice president’s campaign back on track.

Even Ronald Reagan, the GOP’s favorite model for political success, faced a meltdown early in 1980 when he lost the Iowa caucuses and fired top aides before launching his comeback. Like Reagan then, McCain is facing concerns about his age, his campaign competence and his ability to raise money.

McCain enjoys one advantage over Kerry, Gore or Reagan: His campaign disaster has come months earlier than theirs did, allowing him much more time to recover. But in a race where everything else is happening earlier than ever, the danger for McCain is that the news wags and political players are already in a mood to winnow the field with campaign obituaries — six months before the voters start having their say.

McCain’s comeback trail probably begins with his arguing how ridiculous it would be for the political world to shut down a candidacy so soon. If that plea resonates, he’ll have time to come up with tangible evidence that he should still be counted in. And the path to recovery is right there in McCain’s own 2000 message and style.

His relentless griping about the grip that money has over politics, for example. It was the signature issue of his first presidential bid, one that ignited independent voters and helped him win the New Hampshire primary. Reviving those assaults could offer a bit of an excuse for McCain in explaining why he’s done such a poor job of bringing in cash. Indeed, his aides complain that he shows little enthusiasm for fundraising, a reluctance that really does seem to have made the difference in causing him to fall behind. How could the champion of reform be expected to attract big donors, McCain might argue. Refocusing his finance efforts on small-money, online donors might work if he again takes up the crusade against fat cats.

McCain’s signature issues this year have so far been immigration liberalization and the Iraq War. Lucky for him, the immigration policies he advocated have now been spurned by Congress — and so the harm it was doing his own campaign with conservatives has time to pass. His support for the war probably helps him among most GOP primary voters, but he need not go on and on about it. His war standing has cost him support among independents.

Mostly, McCain needs to get back to the happy-warrior demeanor of his first national campaign. Playing Luke Skywalker, the underdog challenger, suited him well in 2000. And it’s easy for him now to reprise the role, because in this race he is no longer the establishment favorite — the sort of character that seems to make him very uncomfortable.

Contributing Editor Craig Crawford is a news analyst for NBC, MSNBC and CNBC. He can be reached at ccrawford@cq.com.