John McCain in 2007 GOP debate at St. Anselm College, sponsored by CNN & WMUR

On War & Peace: Did not read NIE before war vote, but was fully briefed

McCAIN: I did not read that particular document. I received hundreds of briefings, hundreds of hours of study and background and information on it. And the fact is, that the sanctions were breaking down.

Q: Gov. Gilmore, you chaired the commission on Iraq. Do you think it was appropriate that members of Congress would authorize the president to go to war without reading that NIE?

GILMORE: I think the people who are in Congress who are responsible for sending this country to war, with the enormous dangers that it has geopolitically and strategically, ought to read at least that kind of material. I know they get a lot of stuff and they can’t read everything.

On War & Peace: If new strategy not working by Sept., we still must succeed

A: Then you have to examine the options. And I’ll tell you the options. One is the division [of Iraq into three parts by ethnicity]. You would have to divide bedrooms in Baghdad, because Sunni and Shi’a are married to each other. You have 2 million Sunni and 4 million Shi’a living in Baghdad together. You withdraw to the borders and watch genocide take place inside Baghdad. You watch the destabilization of Jordan. You see further jeopardy of Israel because of the threats of Hezbollah and Iranian hegemony in the region. All of the options I could run through with you; none of them are good. That’s why we must succeed and give it a chance to succeed.

On Civil Rights: Don’t ask, don’t tell is working; don’t tamper with it

ROMNEY: No, actually, when I first heard of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, I thought it sounded awfully silly. I didn’t think that would be very effective. And I turned out to be wrong. It’s been the policy now in the military for what, 10, 15 years, and it seems to be working. This is not the time to put in place a major change, a social experiment, in the middle of a war going on. I wouldn’t change it at this point.

McCAIN: We have the best-trained, most professional, best- equipped, most efficient, most wonderful military in the history of this country, and I’m proud of every one of them. There just aren’t enough of them. So I think it would be a terrific mistake to even reopen the issue. The policy is working. And I am convinced that that’s the way we can maintain this greatest military. Let’s not tamper with them.

On Education: Teaching creationism should be decided by school districts

No, I believe that’s up to the school districts. But I think that every American should be exposed to all theories. There’s no doubt in my mind that the hand of God was in what we are today. And I do believe that we are unique, and I believe that God loves us. But I also believe that all of our children in school can be taught different views on different issues. I leave the curricula up to the school boards.

On Energy & Oil: Reinvest oil profits in nuclear power

A: Sure, I think we all do. And they ought to be reinvesting it. And one of the areas that they ought to be involved in is nuclear power. Nuclear power is safe, nuclear power is green--& does not emit greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is used on Navy ships which have sailed around the world for 60 years without an accident. And of course we ought to be investing in alternate energy sources.

On Energy & Oil: FactCheck: nuclear plants do emit no GHGs, but do have waste

McCain is correct to say that nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases; in that respect, it is far more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel power plants. McCain neglects to mention, however, that nuclear power poses a different set of environmental worries. High-level nuclear waste--the sort produced as a byproduct of nuclear power generation--is potentially quite harmful. Some of the isotopes in spent nuclear fuel have half-lives as long as 24,000 years. At present, high-level nuclear waste is mostly stored in pools at nuclear power plants, a temporary solution. Fights have raged for years about the location of a permanent nuclear waste repository, but the NRC plans to open one in 2017 under Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

On Immigration: No official English; Native Americans use own languages

McCAIN: I would like to remind you that we made treaties with Native Americans, such as the Navajos in my state, where we respect their sovereignty and they use their native language in their deliberations. Everybody knows that English has to be learned if anyone ever wants to move up the economic ladder. That is obvious. And part of our legislation, by the way, is a requirement to learn English.

On Immigration: Immigration reform needed for national security

ROMNEY: My view is that we should enforce immigration laws. And this bill [lets almost] every illegal alien stay here. That’s simply not fair to get put ahead in the line of all the people who’ve been waiting legally.

McCAIN: Our legislation does account for people who are here illegally, it does have an employment verification system, and it weeds out those who shouldn’t be here, and it gives others a chance to remain in this country. Look, this is a national security issue first and foremost. What we have done is come together with the president, and the leaders of both parties, and sit down and figure out an approach to this problem. It is a serious national security problem. We need to act, and if someone else has a better idea, I’d love to have them give it to us.

On Immigration: Hispanics serve our country, like every wave of immigrants

TANCREDO: No, I would not advertise in Spanish. English is the glue that keeps a country together, any country. McCain’s immigration bill codifies Pres. Clinton’s executive order that said all papers produced by the government have to be in various languages.

McCAIN: Well, first of all, muchas gracias. We have to stop the illegal immigration, but we’ve had waves throughout our history. Hispanics is what we’re talking about, a different culture, a different language, which has enriched my state where Spanish was spoken before English was. In Washington DC, go to the Vietnam War Memorial and look at the names engraved in black granite. You’ll find a whole lot of Hispanic names. They must come into country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them.

On Principles & Values: GOP lost 2006 due to corrupt spending, spending, spending

A: Spending, spending, spending, spending, which led to corruption. We have former members of Congress in jail as we speak because of this earmarking. We let spending get out of control, we presided over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society, and our constituents and our Republicans became dispirited and disenchanted. We’ve got to stop the earmarking. The bridge to nowhere, a $233 million bridge to an island in Alaska with 50 people on it, was the tipping point. I want to promise you, as president of the United States, I’ll veto every bill that has a pork-barrel project on it, and I’ll make the authors of it famous, and we’ll get spending under control, and we’ll stop the corruption in Washington.