April 5, 2008 McCain applauds troop reduction plan Play video

(NECN) - The presumptive GOP nominee John McCain was in his home state of Arizona Saturday, giving a speech in Prescott.

As McCain prepares to square off against either Clinton or Obama, he called for a more respectful Presidential campaign. He says that the race should be more like a respectful argument among friends, rather than a biter clash of enemies.

Senator McCain applauded the Bush Administration's announcement that combat tours will be reduced in length from 15 months to 12 months in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More from the Associated press.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Sen. John McCain called Saturday for a
presidential campaign that is more like a respectful argument among
friends than a bitter clash of enemies, and said he is better able
than either of his Democratic rivals to govern across party lines.

"We have nothing to fear from each other," the Arizona senator
said as he wrapped up a weeklong trip designed to broaden his
appeal beyond the voters who cast ballots in last winter's
Republican primaries.

"We are arguing over the means to better secure our freedom,
promote the general welfare and defend our ideals."

After a series of stops earlier in the week that emphasized his
military service, McCain spoke on the steps of the Yavapai County
Courthouse. The late Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the father of
the modern conservative Republican party, launched

McCain looked out at his largest crowd of the week as he
recalled his early lessons in political bipartisanship. He
described Goldwater and the late Arizona Rep. Mo Udall, a liberal
Democrat, as close friends despite many political disagreements.

McCain recalled also that shortly after his own election to
Congress in 1982, Udall took him under his wing. "I intend to wage
this campaign and to govern this country in a way that they would
be proud of me," he said of Goldwater and Udall.

And yet, he said, there are important differences to be settled
in the fall on issues such as energy, the housing crisis, health
care, the struggle with terrorists, and Medicare and other federal
spending programs.

"It is more than appropriate, it is necessary that even in
times of crisis, we fight among ourselves for the things we believe
in," McCain said. "It is not just our right, but our civic and
moral obligation."

"Let us exercise our responsibilities as free people. But let
us remember we are not enemies," he added.

McCain also said that if elected, he would attempt to govern in
the same spirit, and sharpened that theme in a news conference
shortly after his speech.

"I have a record unmatched by either Senator Hillary (Rodham)
Clinton or Senator (Barack) Obama of reaching across the aisle,"
he said. He said his record demonstrates "the environment for
working together is clearly there."

McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination a month ago, and his
weeklong trip down a sort of personal memory lane marked a new
phase in his campaign.

In a series of speeches that recalled his education at the Naval
Academy, his time spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and his
post-war military career, he repeatedly urged Americans to support
a cause bigger than themselves.

The speeches touched only glancingly on issues likely to
dominate the campaign, including the war in Iraq, which he
supports, and the economy.

That will begin to change in the coming weeks, aides say, as
McCain begins laying out a series of domestic proposals on taxes,
health care, trade and other topics.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)