Sen. McCain visits Utah meet

SANDY — Arizona Sen. John McCain, who just may be the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nominee, told the Utah GOP state convention Saturday that America must win in Iraq, must secure its own borders in the illegal immigration fight and Congress must stop its crazy spending.

McCain told the crowd of 3,136 delegates that while war is bad, the United States and the world can't afford to lose the war in Iraq. To help that effort, "all Americans should support our president" in a war that will be won, but only after "long, hard and tough" battles.

Using his political catch-phrase of "straight talk," McCain said Congress is "spending out of control."

McCain currently leads a lot of national polls as the favorite GOP presidential nominee in 2008. He has not yet announced his candidacy, although he is traveling the nation, giving speeches like the one in the South Towne Exposition Center and raising money through events such as Saturday night's fund raiser in Salt Lake for his Straight Talk for America political action committee.

GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who recently accompanied the senator on a trip to Iraq, gave McCain a glowing introduction even though Huntsman has already said he's supporting Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president in two years. During a media briefing after his speech, McCain returned the favor, citing Huntsman as a rising star in the party who he expected to do big things on a national, or international, scale.

He made little comment about Romney, only saying he had "a high regard for Gov. Romney" for his work as governor and on the 2002 Olympics. Because of his success in heavily Democratic Massachusetts and a recent statewide health care plan, Romney is considered another front-runner for the nomination.

With the trip to Utah and a Saturday morning speech at Liberty University in Virginia, which is run by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, McCain seems to be reaching out to the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. When asked about past disputes with Falwell, whom he blamed in 2000 for his failed bid for the Republican nomination for president, he said that the voters in his state — and by extension, nationally — preferred he look forward.

"I don't think the people of Arizona want me to look back at something that happened six or seven years ago," he said. "One of the most wasteful things to do in politics is hold a grudge."

McCain, an outspoken opponent of congressional ear-marking for so-called "pork" projects such as a $3 million DNA study on bears that he joked to the GOP convention was either for "paternal or criminal identification," berated his fellow congressmen for not better curtailing spending.

"We need the national will to say no, but nobody in Washington can say no," he said. "We are seeing dramatic increases in revenues, except the spending increases are outpacing those revenues."

McCain is the just the first of potential 2008 presidential hopefuls whom Utah political leaders hope to bring in to the state. The 2006 Legislature gave Huntsman $850,000 to run a Western states presidential primary in early 2008.

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