ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
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As NPR's Don Gonyea reports from Portsmouth, today's speech was a chance for the senator to get a fresh start after a bumpy couple of months.
DON GONYEA: New Hampshire is the site of John McCain's biggest victory in his first presidential campaign. Back in 2000, he upset George W. Bush here. Now, he's back in the Granite State again saying he's the best candidate to lead the nation past the partisan polarization that's been a defining quality of the past six years under the Bush administration. The top of his speech included this plea for unity and civility.
JOHN MCCAIN: Unidentified Group: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: Ours...
GONYEA: The senator has been among the strongest supporters of the war in Iraq, saying a timeline for a withdrawal would amount to surrender. But he also tries to distance himself from how President Bush has handled the war.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: My friends, we all know that the war in Iraq has not gone well. We've made mistakes and we pay grievously for them.
GONYEA: He says such mistakes must never be repeated. But he also says - as does the president - that the latest change in strategy, the increase of U.S. troops in Iraq, is resulting in what McCain today called, quote, "a little progress." McCain also felt compelled to address head on another issue that concerns many about his candidacy: his age. He's 70 years old and if elected, would be the oldest American ever to win the presidency.
MCCAIN: Unidentified Group: Yeah. Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: I know how the military works, what it can do, what it can do better, and what it should not do. I know how Congress works and how to make it work for the country and not just the reelection of its members.
GONYEA: In the audience was McCain supporter Chris Burnett(ph). Like McCain, he's a graduate of the Naval Academy. He's now a businessman in Melvin Village, New Hampshire.
CHRIS BURNETT: They teach integrity at the Naval Academy, and by God we need integrity in the Office of the President.
GONYEA: But a lot of the people in this crowd, fewer than a thousand, also seemed to be here out of curiosity - a common thing in New Hampshire where people take their time to pick a candidate. Still, for a rally, it seemed low key perhaps because a lot of the people here were like Whitney Westell(ph) from Portsmouth. She's a 25-year-old graduate student studying social work.
WHITNEY WESTELL: I'm here to support the process of democracy. I think it's important to be involved and know as much as you can before you make a decision.
GONYEA: But let me ask you. You're holding a John McCain sign.
WESTELL: Yeah.
GONYEA: Are you a John McCain supporter?
WESTELL: I'm not sure that I'm a John McCain supporter. I think I need to learn more information, but they were handing them out, so. They looked a little desperate. There are people that hold signs, so I took one.
GONYEA: A souvenir?
WESTELL: It's a souvenir, exactly.
GONYEA: Don Gonyea, NPR News in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
