DES MOINES – Looking like a veteran of the campaign trail, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., addressed a crowded room of supporters Saturday at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Seeming relaxed, the senator switched effortlessly from good-humored to serious as he led a discussion focused primarily on Iraq, in the first event of a three-stop tour of the state.

At the town-hall style meeting, attended by former Iowa Republican Governors Robert Ray and Terry Branstad, McCain was introduced by former Texas Republican senator Phil Gramm, who touted the senator as a candidate able to make hard decisions and re-establish the fiscal conservatism of the Republican Party.

“To ask if John McCain would veto bills building bridges to nowhere is to ask if water will wet you, if fire will burn you, if a mad dog will bite you,” Gramm said. “If you want to break the back of irresponsible spending in Washington, D.C., John McCain is your man.”

McCain joked briefly with the audience before moving straight into the subject of Iraq. He endorsed the planned troop surge and expressed confidence in new tactics being employed as well as the recently chosen overall Iraq commander, Army General David Petraeus.

Reviving his campaign slogan of “straight talk,” McCain acknowledged that many mistakes have been made in Iraq, but criticized overpoliticization of the conflict. He chided Democrats directly, accusing them of being unwilling to block war funding directly and calling their failed attempt to pass a nonbinding resolution criticizing the president a “political stunt” and “more than a waste of time.”

“No matter whether we pass or defeat this resolution, those young men and women are still going over to Iraq,” McCain said.

During the question and answer session, McCain continued his critiques of the war, citing “terrible mismanagement” of reconstruction funds and pledging, if elected, to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He criticized his own party on domestic issues.

He said Republicans had “lost our way” on spending issues and alienated their base of fiscal conservatives.

“We came to power in 1994 to change government and government changed us,” McCain said. “We began to value power over principle and the American people punished us for that.”

While he admitted voter frustration with the war also hurt Republicans in the 2006 elections, McCain challenged candidates in favor of withdrawal on how to do so while maintaining stability in Iraq.

“There is no one that I know that doesn’t think there would be wholesale slaughter on the streets of Baghdad and then we would have to go back in,” McCain said.

The senator said Gen. Petraeus, who wrote the Army manual on counter insurgency, was confident about current troop levels, but had not ruled out requesting more support. If the new tactics are successful, McCain said, greater security should lead to more cooperation from Iraqis to identify and eliminate insurgents. If the surge is not successful, he said the nation will face a set of difficult choices.

“I can give you lots of options, but I am hard pressed to find one that would get the support of the American people,” McCain said.

Audience members also asked about the threat from Iran. He said Iran’s official or unofficial ties to the insurgency in Iraq, as well as the nuclear ambitions of its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad make the country one of the greatest threats to U.S. security. Despite the threat, McCain said broad international support for sanctions will be more effective in dealing with the country than military action. Additionally, he said the hostile nature of some oil-producing nations, such as Iran, is part of a “compelling argument” for using alternative technologies, specifically ethanol and nuclear energy.

“If you look around the world you will see there are danger points and vulnerabilities every place where we get oil,” McCain said.

Domestic issues were also discussed. McCain preempted his audience on the topic of immigration, announcing, “If I don’t bring it up, you will.” After repeating four times, “We need to secure our borders,” McCain said he agrees with President Bush that a comprehensive immigration policy is needed, which includes a temporary worker program. He said the issue is made especially difficult because previous attempts to curb illegal immigration have been unsuccessful.

“We gave amnesty in the 1980s and it didn’t work. We ended up with a lot more people here illegally, we didn’t secure our borders as we promised the American people we would,” McCain said.

McCain also responded to a question on education. He characterized American secondary education as “the best in the world” and emphasized financial support for students. Primary education, however – kindergarten through high school – he characterized as among the poorest in the world and pushed reform with an emphasis on the quality of teachers.

“I would place just as much emphasis on a reform of education in America, because it is obviously failing America,” McCain said. “We have failing schools, we have failing educational standards and we have teachers in many places who are failing teachers who continue to teach.”