excerpt McCain taking reporters' questions prior to the event...
McCAIN:  ...Danny Carroll obviously is a key race.  Appreciate everything that he's done and I'm looking forward to meeting some of his friends and neighbors this morning.  Glad to be back from Phoenix, where the temperature is supposed to be 110 degrees today.

QUESTION:  Why do you want to campaign in Iowa?

McCAIN:  Well obviously Iowa is important.  I mean let's have some straight talk.  The Iowa caucuses are very important.  We have not decided whether to run or not, much less whether to come to Iowa or not.  But Iowa's a very important state in a broad variety of reasons and I am glad to be here, but I am also campaigning all over the country.  I'm in South Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin--I'm doing what I do every even numbered year, and that's campaigning for Republican candidates.

QUESTION:  But you've made multiple appearances here and there are those who are taking from that the assumption that should you decide to run you'll compete here as compared to 2000.

McCAIN:  Well since we haven't decided whether to run or not, we haven't decided whether we would compete here, but I think that you could make the argument that it's very different from 2000 in that in 2000 I was the outsider and brand new and we could afford to pass up Iowa.  As I say it'll be part of the decision making process, but certainly conditions are not the same as they were in 2000 politically.

QUESTION:  In 2008 you're the front-runner.

McCAIN:  Well you know I still remember with great clarity President Muskie and President Romney, the earlier Gov. Romney in Michigan, so that's not too important.

QUESTION:  So does that mean you're the establishment candidate in '08?

McCAIN:  Look, if I run, and we'll decide early next year, there's a lot of work to do.  Here in Iowa there's parts of the party that there's still lingering resentment over the bitterness of the 2000 race, so we would have a lot of work to do.  I think it's nice to be the quote "perceived front-runner," but I think that the nomination would be up for grabs, I really do.

QUESTION:  One of the balancing acts that people say you have to do is the balancing act between being the kind of renegade rebel outsider you were in 2000 and being the mainstream establishment candidate this time.  Talk about that.  How do you do that?

McCAIN:  Oh, you run on your record.  You run on your record.  I've got a long 24-year record now in the House and the Senate--fiscal conservative, national security, support for the military, I've supported this president and I'm very happy to do so on most issues including the most important...the war in Iraq and national security issues.  But the most important thing is what kind of vision you present to the voters as to how you're going to lead America.  These are very dangerous times in the world.  In the view of some probably the most dangerous times when you look around the world today--the war in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, our own hemisphere, this guy Chavez [Hugo Chavez of Venezuala], there's many, many challenges facing the nation.  So people really want to know what you're going to do for them, much more than they want to know what you've done.  And that's appropriate...  continued

event starts...
DANNY CARROLL introductory remarks: ...Just to help you put it in perspective, the time frame, we're talking about caucuses that will not take place until early 2007.  Is that right?  Eight, 2008, for the fall of '08.  And its been going on like that now for several years and we've become, we just think well that's just the way it's supposed to be.  Folks, there are 49 other states that would happily take our place in a moment.  The notion that less than three million people in the state of Iowa have the privilege of playing an important role in who the next most powerful individual in the world will be is really very remarkable.

I remember a few years ago when a presidential candidate told the story about going into a barber shop and introducing himself as a candidate for president.  And somebody in the barber shop said, "That's all we need is another one of those."  That's kind of funny but it's really very sad.  We need as many of them as we can get.

'Cause I can assure you, and Sen. McCain I don't mean this in any way personal, but were it not for our first in the nation status with the caucuses, they would fly right on over us and Iowa would become a comma or a footnote and that's just the way it works.  And so I am very pleased that occasionally I have the honor of receiving a phone call or hosting someone who is interested in what Iowa thinks as they contemplate whether or not they will be considering a run for the presidency two years from now.  It's early and yes they will interrupt our lives, they will interrupt our television, they will ask you for money, they will make it difficult for me to ask you for money unless I get in line ahead of them.  But I've had the privilege of meeting many national figures such as Sen. McCain, who's here with us today, and I can assure you that they are all honorable people who want nothing bu the best for their country, for their families, for their children and grandchildren.

And they've come to Iowa to see what you think.  They want to know what's on your mind.  They want to know what issues are important to you.  What's troubling your family?  What are you concerned about for the future of your children and grandchildren?  And you have that opportunity today for the next hour or so we're going to listen to what Sen. McCain has to say.  And I'm sure he'll have some opportunity to listen to your questions.

I do have a couple of ground rules before we go much further.  Be nice.  He is our guest and he is my guest.  I don't have to tell you that; I'm trying to be cute.  Sen. McCain, I know all of these folks.  This is not by any means strictly a Republican crowd, but these are long-time friends and we've worked together and we've played together.  In some respects we've almost grown up together.  And I do thank you for your  support.  Sen. McCain is here to help me raise money, and compete this fall in an election that could very well be very close.  If you'll recall two years ago I narrowly defeated the same opponent that I have this year 51 to 49%.  The Democratic party see this as a seat that they can pick up in an effort to gain control of the Iowa House, and I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make that difficult for them.

But more importantly than winning elections, more important than raising money, more important than having these kinds of events is giving the best that we have four our community.  And you'd think that would be an easy question to answer wouldn't you?  But it's not.  You have to think about and ask yourself why am I doing this?  You know I've come up with about the only answer that I can come up with.

I love Iowa.  That's why I'm doing it.  I wasn't born here.  Didn't grow up here; didn't go to school.  Wish I had of.  Got here as soon as I could.  I just love Iowa.  I love everything about her.  I love the climate.  I love the seasons.  I love our people.  I love our farms, our businesses.  There is hardly anything that I don't like about Iowa.  And perhaps God has given me the opportunity and maybe some abilities and some experience that I can use to make her better and keep her safe in all aspects.

And I think that's probably--if I had to put him on the spot--why Sen. McCain is here today and why he is interested in what Iowans think, because he loves his country.  I know he loves his country.  If you know anything about history, you know the sacrifice that he has made on behalf of his country.  But he's also bee a United States Senator and a congressman for the last 24 years almost I think, and I know that that has required some sacrifice because I've spent some time on the campaign trail as well.  And so let us say one more time, thank you for your presence, for your financial contribution--this is a fundraiser--and all indications are a successful one, and like you I'm happy in welcoming to Grinnell and to the state of Iowa the Senator from the State of Arizona, Sen. John McCain.
 

SEN. JOHN McCAIN:  Thank you very much.  Thank you for those kind words.  It's far nicer than the ones I received at the Scottsdale Rotary Club the other day where the guy said here's the latest dope from Washington, Senator John McCain.  So thank you for that kind introduction.

It's great to be back here in Iowa.  I've been here several times recently, but I was also here in 2004 with President Bush campaigning with him and one of my memorable experiences was going to the Garst Farm, which is now Garst Industries, and as I was riding along, as a student of history I remembered that President Eisenhower, many, many years ago back in 1956, had brought Nikita Krushchev to the Garst Farm, and Krushchev had literally been blown away by what he saw of the corn crop.  I later read a book about Krushchev--I've read several books about him--but I read one book about him, and Krushchev was sure that the problem in Russia was the seeds, that they didn't have the right kind of seeds.  So he bought hundreds of pounds or thousands of pounds of seeds from Mr. Garst, got back to Russia, and gave it to all the collective farms, and then never could understand why they didn't grow corn in Russia and the Ukraine the way that we're able to here in Iowa.  It's a little thing called the free enterprise system that he completely missed.  But anyway it struck me when we were back there in 2004, but it also made me interested that we forget many of the lessons of history, and how difficult those times were.

But before I go much further I'd like to say hello to Doug Elliott [phon.], a Vietnam veteran and American hero.  Doug thank you for being here and thank your support of Danny and I thank you very much...  Danny [Carroll] may not have grown up in Iowa, but to me he represents all the good things about Iowa: service to the states, wonderful family--as we all know Joy is the brains of the outfit--and I'm please to be here on his behalf.  And I think it's well to mention that this could be a very tough race.  As Danny mentioned, last time it was tough.  We need his leadership.  We need the kind of fiscal conservativism and the fundamental values, his concern for health care and education and his service now for--since 1994, I think it's very important that we send him back and I'm glad that you are here in support.  By the way Danny, the way I'm going to start...

First of all I'd like to ask your sympathy for the families of the state of Arizona.  Before that I'd like to thank all of you who wintered with us last winter, and we look forward to having you back as soon as the temperature dips below 90 degrees.  It was about 110 when I left this morning or going to be.

We have a real problem in Arizona and it's because Barry Goldwater from Arizona ran for president of the United States and Morris Udall from Arizona ran for president of the United States and Bruce Babbitt from Arizona ran for president of the United States and I'm from Arizona, ran for president of the United States.  Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don't tell their children that some day they can grow up and be the president of the United States.  So I hope you'll give us a little sympathy there.  Morris Udall, liberal Democrat, he's running for president, the nomination against Jimmy Carter in 1976, walked into a barbershop in Manchester, New Hampshire and said, "Hi, I'm Morris Udall from Arizona and I'm running for president of the United States.  And the barber said, "Yeah, we were just laughing about that this morning."  One of the most famous political jokes and I can't tell you the number of politicians that have inserted their name instead of Mo Udall's in that.

I'm happy to be here.  I'd like to just mention two or three issues with you and spend whatever time, then maybe Danny and I both could respond to any questions or comments or insults that you might have.

First of all we live in a very, very dangerous world today, my friends, and I don't think we should not be concerned about the multi-faceted challenges that we face throughout the world.  And I could hopscotch around the world with you and point out literally almost every part of the world where we face significant challenges.

During the Cold War, which was a greater challenge because we were really at risk of a nuclear exchange, at least the issues that we faced were somewhat simpler than they were today.  We faced the monolith of a communist nation bent on conquering the world using methods which we all had to combat, and we had to have a strong national defense and we fought the Cold War.  And one of my favorite comments was made by Margaret Thatcher.  She said Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot.  I still believe that is true today.  But now we face a different kind of enemy, a different kind of challenge, and it's in some ways more complex and more difficult.

You know the thing that's concerning about the latest in the last couple of days, apprehension of those plotters who clearly were going to seek to blow up airplanes as they crossed the Atlantic towards the United States from England, is that many of these young men apparently were not born in Pakistan or a Middle Eastern country.  They were born in England and somehow they were seduced by this radical Islamic extremism that even motivates people to sacrifice their own lives in order to take the lives of others.

I don't mean to give you asides all the time, but I'm a great reader and a great student of history.  A very famous writer named William Manchester, who wrote a wonderful book that I re-read recently about World War II, it was called Goodbye, Darkness was the name of it, and he points out something we've forgotten.  There was a point in the Pacific War where the Japanese almost tipped the war in their favor because of the kamikazes.  We had never encountered an enemy who would who would fly an airplane into--we lost hundreds of ships.

This is the most difficult kind of enemy, as we find out daily in Iraq.  And the fundamentals of this are going to be with us for a long time.  So I appreciate the President's leadership, I appreciate the efforts that he's making, and I appreciate the fact that the American people are ready, willing an able to do whatever is necessary.  Just go through an airport and you will see Americans displaying incredible patience.  It's quite remarkable and I see recent travelers in the last couple of days nodding their heads.  So we're in a very dangerous world and we are confronting an enemy which is hydra-headed and it's very, very difficult.  And I'd be glad to discuss some of those aspects of it.

On the latest situation in Lebanon I think that the good news is that we were able to bring about a cease fire, and I think it's going to be bumpy, and I'd be glad to talk more about that with you, but I think that we're going to get an international force into Southern Lebanon and prevent them from rearming so that they will not post a significant threat to Israel.  But I would like to point out a couple of things.  One.  Suppose that a terrorist organization started launching rockets into the United States of America from the other side of our border.  What would you expect the United States of America to do?  I think you would expect us not to just declare a cease fire, but to eradicate the threat that was causing the needless and wanton deaths of innocent civilians.

Now the Israelis, in their attacks in Beirut, innocent civilians were killed.  It's a tragedy; it's a terrible tragedy.  And I'm sure that all of us find that that's one of the terrible horrors of war.  But their opponents or the terrorist organization Hezbollah, was launching rockets hoping to kill civilians.  They didn't care who they killed.  Those rockets aren't accurate; they just launched them.  So, and Hezbollah, you've got to remember was sponsored by the Iranians.  And the Iranians are now trying to acquire nuclear weapons.  So this is a very very serious threat and even though we have the cease fire in Lebanon, we still have Iranians where their president's stated national policy is to exterminate the state of Israel.  that's pretty serious, when you think of them at least progressing towards the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

And all these things I'd like to discuss with you because you know there's members of the Iowa National Guard that are serving in Iraq as we speak and there's young men who are from the Iowa National Guard who are probably down on our border trying to protect our border.  National Guardsmen are from all over the country.  And already young men and women from the state of Iowa and the state of Arizona have already made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of somebody else's freedom.  And by the way, you know that things are very difficult in Iraq and I'd be glad to talk more about that with you as well.

On the domestic front, and it has to do with foreign policy, I don't see the price of oil going down.  I see no scenario that the price of oil is going to go down every again.  We've got two large growing, dramatically growing economies of India and China that are doing everything they can to increase their access to oil and they will be using more and more of a finite supply in the world.  And the reason why I mention this obviously, is because if the price of oil doesn't go below $40 a barrel, ethanol is not only a viable, but a very important contributor to our nation's energy needs.  I believe that climate change is real.  I believe that it's taking place around the world.  And I also agree with the National Academy of Sciences, scientists that state unequivocally that the [inaud. ?world's?earth's] temperatures are going up and that it is largely a result of human activity which has generated greenhouse gases.  Ethanol is a very significant contributor in reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, so I think it's going to play a very important role and by the way I also believe that nuclear power is a vital, vital ingredient in making our nation reduce its dependency on foreign oil.  And I know that that scares some people.  I remind you that 80 percent of the electricity generated in France is from nuclear power.  Nuclear power can be safe, it's important, and it's clean.

I'm glad to be back here in Iowa.  I want to thank you for your support of this good and decent American.  I hope that you will recognize that this could be a tough election, and if it's going to be close as it was last time every single phone call counts, every single yard sign counts, every one of your neighbors and friends that you can get out to vote on behalf of Danny's candidacy may make a difference in this upcoming campaign.  So I appreciate your being here today on this behalf and I look forward to coming back to visit with you, and also I look forward to celebrating with you on election night as we send this good and decent man back to our state house.  Thank you very much.
 

Sen. McCain next called veterans in the audience up to the front for a photo and then he took questions.