Politics

McCain Hits Campaign Trail

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 31, 1999 / 6:38 PM EDT / CBS

Sen. John McCain worked the well-worn New Hampshire campaign trail this holiday weekend. The Arizona Republican, who takes pride in being a political maverick, has been running hard, waging his own air campaign for the past two months, reports CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen.

The ex-Vietnam War fighter pilot has been setting himself apart from the field and becoming much better known by attacking President Clinton for his air war strategy in Yugoslavia.

"He has fought this war according to the imperatives of his polling numbers," says McCain, "and his numbers have told him that he can fight a risk-free war where only the people we are trying to protect lose their lives and no Anerican has to meet the enemy on the battlefield."

It's McCain's five-and-a-half years as a prisoner that also sets him apart from from the rest of the field, Republican and Democrat; his status as a war hero who refused immediate release by the enemy because he thought it was a propaganda ploy. He eventually came home when all the POWs did.

"I don't view my experience in Hanoi as a defining experience," says McCain. "But I do believe it helped me to achieve a certain knowledge and appreciation for the difference between right and wrong."

Does he consider himself a maverick? "I would like to have it described as unconventional or independent. But yes, some say the word is maverick."

The 62-year-old McCain is pro-life and pro-guns, though he favors restrictions for juveniles since Littleton. But he's annoyed fellow Republicans by attacking tobacco interests and pushing for campaign finance reform. McCain believes voters are fed up with fund-raising loopholes.

"I also believe that they will reject, at some point, these negative ads wich demean and degrade all of us including the entire system," he says. "And if they don't, then I won't win."

And winning will require spending more campaign time in delegate-rich California. With its primary moved up from June to March, the Golden State is among eight states so far that make up a Super Tuesday primary lineup that could determine the presidential nominees very early -- and could take McCain from underdog to top dog.

"George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole are the frontrunners at this point and probably deserve to be," says McCain. "But I don't think we've had a coronation in the history of our party, and I think we're going to have a campaign."

And if John McCain has his way, it could be a memorable one.