US: McCain attempts to breathe new life in campaign

Portsmouth (NH), Apr 25: Faced with questions about his age and all-out support for the Iraq war, Republican US Sen. John McCain pitched his experience in seeking to breathe fresh life into his presidential campaign today in New Hampshire.

Against a backdrop of the Piscataqua River near the Atlantic coast, McCain, 70, formally launched his bid to succeed George W Bush as president in the November 2008 election.

He would become the oldest person to be elected president.

Ronald Reagan won in 1980 at age 69.

McCain, a cancer survivor, wore a dark sweater and no tie and confronted the age question head on as he takes on a younger Republican field that includes former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney.

''We face formidable challenges, I'm not afraid of them. I'm prepared for them. I'm not the youngest candidate. But I am the most experienced,'' he told a crowd of several hundred cheering supporters.

After starting his campaign months ago as the presumed front-runner, McCain has trailed Giuliani and Romney in all-important campaign fund raising.

This week McCain replaced his finance director and scheduled more fund-raising events to coincide with a campaign swing that takes him to South Carolina tomorrow then on to Iowa, Nevada and his home state of Arizona.

A leading reason for McCain's troubles has been his vigorous support for the unpopular Iraq war at a time when many Americans are weary of the conflict and eager to return US troops home.

''We all know that the war in Iraq has not gone well. We've made mistakes and we have paid grievously for them,'' he said. ''We have changed the strategy that failed us, and we have begun to make a little progress.'' But McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was unsparing in his criticism of how the war was conducted initially, saying the country should never undertake a war without a comprehensive plan for success.

''We did not meet this responsibility initially. And we must never repeat that mistake again,'' McCain said.

''What about a good reason?'' a man shouted from the crowd.

Without mentioning names, McCain seemed to take shots at Giuliani, who was New York mayor during the Sept. 11 attacks, and Bush by raising questions about American preparedness for terrorist attack or national calamity, an apparent reference to hurricane Katrina.

Americans will not accept, he said, ''that firemen and policemen are unable to communicate with each other in an emergency because they don't have the same radio frequency'' or the ''government's failure to deliver bottled water to dehydrated babies or rescue the infirm from a hospital with no electricity'' or take care of wounded veterans.

Outside the barricades surrounding the event, a small group of protesters held up signs with slogans including ''US Out of Iraq.'' McCain was seen as a populist maverick in the 2000 campaign when he gave Bush a scare by winning the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire by 18 percentage points.

This year, he is trying to recreate the magic of that campaign by tooling around in a bus dubbed the ''Straight Talk Express.'' His position in the polls showed he has some work ahead. In a Fox News/Opinion Dynamic poll conducted April 17-18, Giuliani led McCain 35 per cent to 16 per cent, with Romney at 10 per cent.

The failure by any candidate to take a commanding lead has prompted talk that former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, a popular television actor, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might jump into the Republican race as well.

Reuters
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