McCain answers critics on Iraq, gas tax during Denver gathering

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Friday blasted a new Democratic National Committee television ad quoting him as saying the Iraq War could take "100 years" to end, saying the ad was a "direct falsification."

McCain, speaking at a health care "town hall" at the Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center in Denver, also touted his health care plan and shot back at critics of his proposed suspension of the federal gas tax this summer.

Speaking before a sympathetic audience of about 200, McCain said the DNC was "deliberately falsifying" his words with the nationwide ad, which began running on cable in Colorado this week.

The ad begins by saying President Bush has talked about staying in Iraq for 50 years. It then has McCain add, "Maybe 100. That'd be fine with me."

McCain has held that he was referring to a possible peacekeeping force, not a 100-year-long war.

"I'm sorry that political campaigns have to deteriorate in this fashion, because there's legitimate differences between myself and Senator (Barack) Obama and Senator (Hillary) Clinton on what we should do in Iraq," McCain said Friday.

McCain said both Clinton and Obama "want to set a date for withdrawal" of U.S. troops from Iraq. Such a move, he said, "would lead to catastrophe and chaos.

"After we win the war in Iraq, and we are succeeding - and it's long and hard and tough, with enormous sacrifices - then I'm talking about a security arrangement that may or may not be the same kind of thing we had with Korea after the Korean War was over," he said.

McCain also defended his proposal to suspend the 18.5 cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day, saying it has caused "a firestorm, particularly among the special interests that ride around in chauffeured limousines inside the Beltway in Washington.

"Why don't we give American working men and women a little break for the summer - just a little break for the summer? I mean, it's not the end of Western Civilization as we know it," McCain said to laughter.

Clinton have also backed a summer gas tax holiday. Obama, though, has criticized the proposal as "an obvious election-year gimmick" that would take away from federal highway funding.

The bulk of the "town hall" meeting was devoted to talking health care.

McCain drew a strong line between his plan, which focuses on expanding health care choices, with those offered by the Democratic presidential candidates.

“I believe that if you adopt the program and proposals of Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, you will have a wasteful, inefficient, costly system replaced by a more inefficient, wasteful costly system, because that’s what’s happened in countries where they have adopted universal health care,” McCain said.

McCain proposed offering every American family a $5,000 tax credit -- $2,500 for individuals -- to help purchase an alternative health plan from what their employer or the government offers.

McCain's health care plan was quickly attacked by Colorado Democrats, who called it inadequate to help uninsured Americans get coverage.

"$2,500 or $5,000 is not going to cover the cost of insurance," said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver). "And people who don't have insurance right now, by and large, are people who can't afford to pay their monthly bill. So asking them to pay the full rate of an insurance premiums with the hopes of getting a tax credit at the end of the year is not going to get them enrolled."

At Friday's "town hall," several Colorado Republican candidates were spotted in the crowd, including U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, CD-5 candidates Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn, and HD-6 candidate Joshua Sharf.

McCain's 23-year-old daughter Meghan, who has been maintaining a blog while following her father on the campaign trail, was also present.

Rayburn said afterward that he thought McCain answered questions on health care "very well. 

"He understands that it's a complex problem with a lot of different pieces to it - there's tort reform, there's insurances reform, there's various medicare/Medicaid reimbursement rates that aren't helping the problem," Rayburn said. "Certainly we don't want to move towards socialized medicine the way the democrats Hillary and Obama are talking about. so I think the interest of the American people are much better served by Senator McCain's approach than the Democrats."