ASPEN, COLO. — When John McCain last spoke at the Aspen Institute a year ago, his campaign was bleeding money, losing staff and near implosion. On Thursday, he made a triumphant return as the presumptive Republican nominee.
Speaking on a windswept meadow, the Arizona senator highlighted his national security credentials, citing his decision to press for an unpopular troop surge in Iraq that is now credited with reducing violence and his hard-line stance against Russia's invasion of Georgia.
"It's a reassertion of the age-old Russian ambitions and desires for the Russian empire and the so-called near abroad," he said.
McCain for the first time declined to rule out a military intervention, if diplomatic pressure fails.
"I really hesitate to talk about a military option at this time because I think that would escalate rather than de-escalate what we want to see achieved here," he said. "There's plenty of time in the future, depending on Russia's behavior there and in the region, to talk about the other options."
The hourlong discussion with Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, covered much of McCain's typical campaign speech: He called for immediate congressional action on the nation's energy crisis, increased drilling for oil off the coasts, more nuclear power plants, expanding free trade, no tax increases and an overhaul of Social Security.
McCain mentioned his competitor, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, once by name, in response to an audience member who asked if he thought the presumptive Democratic nominee was a traitor for his opposition to the Iraq war.
"I think he's wrong," McCain said. "I think he used the issue of Iraq for political reasons, to get the nomination of his party."
He never addressed whether he thought Obama was a "traitor."
The discussion also had lighter moments, such as when Isaacson mentioned that a magazine had recently reported that "Dancing Queen" by ABBA was McCain's favorite song.
"A lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane and never caught up again," McCain said. "Now look, everyone says, 'I hate ABBA. ABBA, how terrible, blah, blah, blah.' How come everybody goes to 'Mamma Mia'? . . . Everybody goes; they've been selling out for years."
McCain was joined at the event by three high-powered advisors who traveled across the country to meet him and at least three Republican governors, raising speculation that he might be interviewing them about the ticket's No. 2 spot.
