McCain's South Carolina mail: Iraq, immigration and Hillary

McCain is out with a big direct mail blast in South Carolina.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) - Sen. John McCain's campaign in South Carolina, long silent on the airwaves and in the mail, is stepping up their media efforts in the state as the holidays approach.

Two days after the campaign launched a statewide radio spot praising McCain's judgment on the war, his office here will send out a mail piece Wednesday advancing his three-pronged South Carolina message: that McCain is right on Iraq, that he wants to secure America's borders, and that he is the only Republican who can defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton in a general election.

[Read the mail piece here.]

The front of the brochure features a picture of McCain and former President Ronald Reagan, and it folds out to reveal the familiar image of McCain in his days as a Navy pilot.

"He was proven right" on the troop surge, the mailer reads, emphasizing a McCain talking point that he was the only Republican candidate to call for a shift in military strategy in Iraq.

The mail piece also takes on illegal immigration, McCain's political Achilles heel among GOP primary voters, explaining that the senator wants to "secure our borders first" and that he knows "illegal immigration is a national security issue."

The mail piece comes with a returnable form with a pledge reading: "Yes John ... I am willing to help you beat Hillary."

A campaign aide described the mailing as "substantial." The new mailer comes a day after his campaign circulated a brochure in New Hampshire blasting the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as someone "voters don’t trust" on immigration.

- CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby