Q&A: John McCain on White House, Iraq

Douglass: Your campaign has been strapped for money although you are doing better in every measure according to all the reporting that's being done about your campaign, better in the polls, feeling a little bit more loose and liberated on the stump from what we see and hear. But again, there is the money question. Are you going to accept federal matching funds in the primary?

McCain: We don't have to at this time, Linda, the money seems to be coming in OK, we'll make that decision within the next month or two months or whenever it may be necessary, but right now our campaign is sufficiently funded to get out the message that we wanted to.

Douglass: I was on the Straight Talk Express with you, as you may well remember, seven years ago. How is it different now for you?

McCain: The only difference really is that the world has changed. When you and I were riding around on that bus, and having a great time, we were talking about mainly domestic issues, because the world was in relative peace. Since then, we had 9/11 and now this struggle against radical Islamic extremism, which has shifted our priorities to the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, young Americans in harm's way. So if probably that hadn't happened we would be spending our conversation on probably tax cuts, health care and other issues. Instead the dominant issue, as it should be, is Iraq, which has a subtext of a struggle against radical Islamic extremism.

Douglass: Now Senator, just one final question here, you do have a tendency to take positions that aren't necessarily popular with the public at large, certainly your advocacy of a strong position in the Iraq war, you've talked about fuel economy standards to the automakers, you've said some things about immigration reform that have made some Republicans angry. And yet, you hang in there. How is it that you think you will pull this off, that is winning the nomination, and what is it about yourself that you think could make that happen?

McCain: Well first of all, I think as you well know from spending time with me, we can out-campaign just about anybody. The town hall meetings, the encounters with the voters, I enjoy it more than anything else. The second thing is you've got to do what you think is right, and I think at the end of the day, if we get the message out right, people will disagree with me on issues but trust me to lead the country. The biggest problem in Washington is that nobody has the trust or confidence in the government and the Congress or the executive branch, because of Katrina and Iraq, and I would hope at the end of the day, I could appeal to their belief that I'll restore trust and confidence, and I have the qualifications to lead.

Picking the president: The candidates Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed. John McCain                Barack Obama

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