WASHINGTON -- The Straight Talk Express, which served Sen. John McCain so well in the early primary states, wont do him much good anymore. McCain has less than two weeks to pitch his campaign to voters across the country, in delegate-rich and geographically expansive states such as California and New York. If you happen to live in a state with an upcoming primary, theres a slim chance that youll see McCains cruiser coming down your street. But theres a good chance youll see a McCain advertisement like "Courage" on your television set.

"Courage" is one of those gauzy ads that presents McCain in the soft, sentimental light that has helped his insurgent candidacy flourish. But when I first saw "Courage," at a Virginia post-production house a couple of weeks ago, it was lifeless. The images and the words were there, but the emotion was missing. That's because Todd Hahn, a man most voters have never heard of, hadn't gotten his hands on "Courage" yet.

Hahn, who was watching the spot for the first time that day, too, is a Juilliard-trained composer who is considered a genius for his ability to inject emotion into political advertising. Recently, he's been working to make McCain's advertisements look and feel like 30-second Hollywood epics. "I know when Todd has hit a home run," says John Marcus, who has produced some of McCain's ads, "because I walk out with a tear in my eye."

Music has been a staple of television political advertisements for a long time, but until recently most of it has been, as Hahn calls it, "needle drop" stuff, canned ditties imported from a music library. But with the rise of digital sampling, a professional composer can produce an original score with a computer and a keyboard that can fit comfortably inside campaign budget constraints.

Hahn can deliver a score in 30 minutes. That speed and his creativity have made him one of the hottest political composers in the business. He isn't hired for his political acumen, however -- he flunked his government course in high school, and he hasn't made much of an effort to understand politics since then.

Hahn is 36, has a trim red goatee that matches his red face and bright blue eyes. He was born in Akron, Ohio, and is one of those hopelessly sincere Midwesterners who drifts across the Appalachians and ends up on the East Coast. Most imports start talking like city folks soon enough, but 10 years after arriving in Washington, Hahn still makes exclamations like "gosh" and "dawgonnit" without a hint of irony. He was calling me "buddy" before he ever set eyes on me.

When I caught up with him, Hahn was watching "Courage" in a cramped temporary studio while his main space is fitted for a grand piano. As a narrator recites the highlights of McCain's biography, the viewer sees grainy black-and-white images of McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. That footage dissolves into video of a vigorous handshake with Ronald Reagan in front of the White House. Then we see candidate McCain talking with real folks at his town hall meetings this year.

Hahn is staring up at the monitor intently, hands resting on the keyboard. Twice through the ad and he's done. He won't listen to the scripted ad closely again until he's finished with a rough cut of his score.

Hahn begins by laying down a pad of strings from the synthesizer -- it's an electronic hodgepodge of violins, violas and cellos -- that he uses to create the emotional glue of his piece. "Courage" will be scored in the key of D flat. D flat is a strong, powerful chord that Hahn used a lot when he did work for Bob Dole in 1996. As for the tempo, Hahn wants it as slow as possible. The main goal in scoring a short advertisement, says Hahn, is to make it feel longer than it is.

Hahn says he has met the candidate only once, but that as a composer he is drawn to the latent drama of McCain's story. "For a guy like McCain," he says, "I can't help but write something that has a heroic theme."

Although his last two presidential subjects have been Republicans, Hahn works for both sides of the political aisle. In 1992, for instance, he scored ads for Bill Clinton's campaign. In the heat of the fall election season, Hahn will turn out 12 or 13 original scores every day, many for congressional and gubernatorial candidates. Sometimes, he ends up scoring ads for two candidates running against each other. "I have on a shelf here literally hundreds and hundreds of DAT tapes of his 30-second commercials," says Mark Puttnam, a Democratic consultant. "He must have written more melodies than the Beatles and Mozart combined."

French horn, medium bore, is the next addition to the "Courage" score. Hahn says it adds a "'Right Stuff'-ish kind of feel." Before the end of the piece, Hahn will add another French horn and the tinny fluegelhorn. Of the fluegelhorn, he says, "It's like the ghost of fallen comrades." It's an auditory reminder, Hahn says, of McCain's military heritage.

On his next couple of passes, Hahn adds a piano ("fills in the weight") and a single cello ("more bottom weight"). Hahn says he tends to score a fuller, more orchestral sound for Republicans. The bigger sound seems to capture the emotional core of Republican campaign themes such as patriotism and love of country. When he's working for Democrats, he tends to create a more humble, grass-roots sound. Hahn is more likely to feature a lonely guitar or a plain piano in a Democratic ad. "I'll stay away from a big ensemble of horns. Maybe one French horn."

After about 20 minutes, the basic score is finished. Now, Hahn places the icing on the cake, sprinkling his creation with a few final touches. The POW footage at the beginning gets a slow, reverberating snare drum. "You hear it and you think military right off the bat," he says. Then he makes a pass through with a cymbal, placing a lusty crash directly on McCain's handshake with Ronald Reagan. "Gipper always gets a crash."

By the end, Hahn has transformed a stale 30-second video rehash of McCain's biography into a small-scale "Saving Private Ryan." He declares it a "pretty spot." Greg Stevens, McCain's chief media consultant, passes through a few minutes later and signs off without any changes.

Hahn once viewed the political work as just a way to pay the bills, but now he's grown to love his role in American democracy. "I try to write the music to follow my own hopes for America," says Hahn, "and I hope the American public will pick up on that."