McCain expounds on leadership

The United States must maintain its leadership position in world affairs, Republican presidential candidate John McCain told hundreds of attendees at the national American Legion convention in downtown Phoenix on Tuesday.

That position is bolstered in large part by the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, he told the military veterans group.

"There are those who say that our day as the free world's leader has passed, that our moment is waning," said McCain, a Vietnam veteran. "They point to the anti-Americanism that is sometimes heard in Europe and elsewhere, and take this as a sign that America no longer has the strength or the moral majority to lead."

"The criticisms tend to pass or quiet down when global threats and dangers appear," he said.

The Arizona senator also used the speech to challenge Democratic rival Barack Obama's vision of the county's role in world affairs and the use of its military.

Obama also was invited to speak at the convention, but he is in Denver this week for the Democratic National Convention that will confirm him as his party's nominee for the presidency. The Illinois senator is expected to address the American Legion conventioneers with a videotaped message today,

McCain also outlined his plans to streamline and bolster medical and educational benefits to veterans.

The Republican candidate, highlighting one of the key themes of his campaign, sought to contrast his own worldview with that of Obama and detail his own military experience.

McCain reminded the conventioneers of a speech Obama delivered in Berlin on July 24. Obama suggested the end of the Cold War proved that there is "no challenge too great for a world that stands as one."

McCain differed with that assessment.

"As I recall," he said, "the world was deeply divided during the Cold War between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny. The Cold War ended not because the world stood as one, but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership."

McCain similarly sought to heighten the differences between his and Obama's positions on the Iraq war, saying the war was a just cause that liberated Iraq from a dangerous tyrant.

McCain, who held an American Legion cap throughout his address, promised that veterans issues would be at the forefront of his presidential administration.

He pledged to name a "forceful" secretary of Veterans Affairs, cut unrelated pork projects from VA funding bills, make health care more easily available through the use of Veterans' Care Access Cards that will give veterans access to private providers, expand services to women vets, and to make the educational benefits of the new GI Bill more flexible. Specifically, McCain said veterans should be able to transfer the GI Bill's educational benefits to spouses or children.

His remarks were well-received.

"He hit all the key veterans issues that I feel were important," said American Legion member Bruce Conklin, of Fountain Hills. Conklin particularly liked McCain's intention to cut earmarks from VA bills.

Joe Kwasny, of East Chicago, Ind., credited McCain for clarifying his positions on the GI Bill and care cards, both of which have come under close scrutiny by veterans. "He's a veteran and he's going to support the veterans," Kwasny said.

Paul Giblin may be reached at 480-970-2331 or pgiblin@evtrib.com.