After months of campaigning, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain officially declared his bid for the presidency Wednesday in Portsmouth... and then again in Manchester.
NHPR correspondent Brian Early reports from the Queen City.
Rain poured down on McCain's official kickoff tour of Manchester, but the Arizona Republican said that wasn't a bad sign:
"I view this as a sign of good luck, that I'm here with you in the rain..."
The atmosphere, however, was subdued. Only about two hundred people showed up, including a few anti-war protesters, who heckled McCain a few times.
McCain argued that Americans need to put aside their differences and unite for the common good:
"This election should be about big things, not small ones. Ours our not red-state or blue-state problems, they are national and global."
It is his experience, McCain says, that puts him above the other candidates. It was that experience, he assured those gathered, that would strengthen America's power as well as fix Medicare and Social Security.
For NHPR News, I'm Brian Early in Manchester.
