SACRAMENTO — After what many political analysts called a listless spring campaign, Sen. John McCain's presidential bid turned a corner this summer. Hammering away with relentless repetition, the Republican McCain turned one of Democrat Barack Obama's major selling points — an ability to draw huge crowds — into a question mark. He played up his foreign-policy bona fides by responding aggressively to the crisis in Georgia as Obama spent a week in Hawaii visiting family. McCain pulled to near-even in the polls in late August.