McCain aims to turn his age to advantage

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- John McCain is the first to tell you: He's old, his fund-raising has lagged, and he strongly supports a deeply unpopular war.

But the Arizona senator, in officially launching his bid for the White House in New Hampshire yesterday, sought to turn his potential liabilities into strengths in hopes of reigniting his campaign after losing ground and making a series of missteps.

With the Portsmouth Naval Yard as a backdrop, McCain kicked off a five-state announcement tour by telling supporters and bystanders that his time in the military and in Congress had given him wisdom about the world that no other candidate can claim.

McCain, 70, said that if elected president, he would "use every lesson I've learned through hard experience and the history I've witnessed."

"I'm not the youngest candidate," said McCain, who would be the oldest president to ever take office, "but I am the most experienced."

He weaved that theme throughout his 20-minute address, seeking to reassure voters that his many years in Washington, his long career as a Navy combat pilot, and his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam made him fit to make the difficult decisions facing the country in a time of mounting challenges.

"I know how the world works; I know the good and evil in it," he said. "I know how to fight, and I know how to make peace. I know who I am and what I want to do."

McCain, though, faces persistent questions about whether he is too old to win the presidential nomination. One-fifth of New Hampshire residents surveyed in a recent University of New Hampshire poll said McCain's age would make them less likely to vote for him.

But some at the Portsmouth rally said McCain's age and experience were what they liked about him.

"I think he's a man that offers stability and a man that's been tested," said the Rev. John Ross, 50, of Kittery, Maine. "And we need that in America today."

Carroll County Sheriff Scott A. Carr, a McCain supporter, echoed that sentiment in a phone interview. "Personally, I just feel that Senator McCain possesses a great deal of experience, of course, as well as having a great understanding for what people in the military go through," he said.

The perception of authenticity has long been one of McCain's trademarks, and it helped endear him to many Republicans, independents, even Democrats, when he made a strong run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000. That year, he won the New Hampshire primary before later losing the nomination to George W. Bush.

But today McCain is looking to lead a far different country, living under the persistent threat of terrorism and ensnared in a bloody war in Iraq. Perceptions of McCain among activists and the media have also shifted. Where once he was seen as a lesser-known maverick candidate, today he's viewed by some as the establishment candidate.

Thus McCain occupies a strange space: He acknowledges that he's not quite the maverick he was in 2000, nor has he made amends with conservatives, with whom he has broken over campaign finance reform, judicial nomination, and other issues. McCain told reporters yesterday that he could still be a maverick and run as the experienced candidate.

"I don't think they are contradictory," he said.

Aware of the political risk in supporting the Iraq war, McCain was critical during his announcement speech of how the Bush administration has conducted it.

"My friends, we all know that the war in Iraq has not gone well," he said, arguing that the United States made a grave mistake of waging a war it wasn't fully prepared to fight or finish. "We must never repeat that mistake again."

Asked by reporters later whether the United States would have invaded Iraq had he been president, McCain said he didn't know. But he was sharply critical of Senate majority leader Harry Reid for saying the war had been "lost."

McCain's announcement tour -- which will take him to South Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, and Arizona -- follows a rocky few months for his campaign. In national polls, he recently ceded top position to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. And his campaign acknowledged that its fund-raising in the first quarter of 2007 was a disappointment.

Wayne Berman, a senior McCain adviser, said the candidate's three recent speeches -- on Iraq, energy, and fiscal policy -- have helped improve fund-raising. He also said the addresses on subjects other than Iraq have demonstrated that his candidacy is about more than the war.

"Did he have to broaden his candidacy?" Berman asked. "Yes, and he had to do it because he has a 30-year record of being involved in all kinds of issues."

The crowd at the Portsmouth event, which numbered between 300 and 400, did not quite live up to the campaign's expectations, and efforts to build momentum before McCain pulled up in his bus fell flat. One supporter at the microphone failed miserably to get the audience to chant "McCain, McCain, McCain."

Several people said they came not because they supported McCain, but because it was an easy way to learn more about a presidential candidate.

"I'd like to keep an open mind," said Kate Beland, a 32-year-old educator from Portsmouth.

A cold, steady rain also kept the crowd relatively light at a rally later in Manchester, where McCain addressed 200 to 300 people, police said.

At both events, McCain reached out to independent voters by attacking petty partisanship and what he said was Washington's fixation on the "spoils of power."

"I want a mandate from you . . . to change the politics of selfishness, stalemate, and delay," he said.

But his supporters acknowledge that McCain's position on the war makes it harder to win over those outside the Republican base.

"The people in this state are mighty disappointed at how the war was conducted, and it takes some persuading to get the independents to listen to the argument," said Steve Duprey, a former chairman of the New Hampshire GOP who is helping lead McCain's campaign in the state. But Duprey contends that McCain will be helped by the fact that he's been critical for several years of the way the war has been fought.

A handful of antiwar protesters showed up at both events, a reminder that McCain is inextricably linked to what happens in Iraq. In Manchester, they heckled him , yelling, "Warmonger!"

"This is what free speech is all about," McCain said. "Live free or die."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.