Trailing Rudy Giuliani in the polls and Mitt Romney in the money chase, John McCain officially announced his candidacy for president Wednesday with a pledge “to protect our country from harm and defeat its enemies.”
McCain would be 72, older than any other incoming president, if he were to win the election in November 2008. On Wednesday, he sought to turn this potential liability into an asset.
“I’m not the youngest candidate, but I am the most experienced,” the Republican said. “I know how the world works. I know the good and the evil in it.”
Speaking at an outdoor rally in Portsmouth, N.H., the Arizona senator said he was “not running for president to be somebody, but to do something.”
“I’m running for president to protect ourcountry from harm and defeat its enemies,” he said.
McCain’s speech was criticized by Democrats and some Republicans who accuse him of lacking conservative credentials.
“It’s going to take more than a PR product-style relaunch to fix the damage McCain’s do-anything-to-win tactics and staunch support for the president’s Iraq war policies,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda said.
Pat Toomey, president of the conservative Club for Growth, slammed McCain for opposing President Bush’s tax cuts.
“No matter how many times McCain announces his candidacy or how many speeches he gives, Senator McCain can’t paper over his anti-growth record of opposing tax cuts,” Toomey said.
McCain did not say whether he would like to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent. But he raised the specter of massive tax increases if the government fails to reform major entitlement programs.
“If we don’t make some tough choices today, Social Security and Medicare will go bankrupt, or we’ll have to raise taxes so drastically we’ll crush the prosperity of average Americans,” he said.
While McCain supports the president’s surge of troops into Iraq, he made a point of emphasizing the administration’s missteps.
“We all know the war in Iraq has not gone well,” he said. “America should never undertake a war unless we are prepared to do everything necessary to succeed, unless we have a realistic and comprehensive plan for success, and unless all relevant agencies of government are committed to that success.”
“We did not meet this responsibility initially,” he said. “And we must never repeat that mistake again.”
