EXETER – Calling his visit the launch of his nationwide general election campaign, John McCain yesterday told Granite State supporters they once again hold the key to his political future.

"The state of New Hampshire will be a battleground state. I intend to be back and back and back. I need New Hampshire to win the presidency," the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting told a friendly crowd of nearly 400 at the Exeter Town Hall.

McCain, on a nostalgic "thank you" visit to the first-primary state that launched his successful run to the nomination, stressed his readiness to be commander-in-chief, his low-tax, pro-business approach to the economy and recognized that climate change "is real" and must be aggressively addressed.

He called for making the Bush administration tax cuts permanent, simplifying the tax code, reducing the corporate income tax and bringing "transparency" to mortgages.

McCain was met outside the town hall by sign-holding demonstrators chanting, "Bush-McCain, more of the same," and was both criticized before his arrival in the state by the organized labor leaders, who called him anti-worker, and questioned by a group called New Hampshire for Health Care for not supporting universal health care.

Inside Exeter Town Hall yesterday, Sen. John McCain was greeted enthusiastically and admitted to nearly becoming emotional. (BOB LAPREE)

►For or against him, they all came out

McCain said he wants to make health care more affordable and more broadly available, but he said, "I will not mandate health care for every American and I will not let the government run it."

The state Democratic Party chided McCain with "five reasons why New Hampshire won't support" him, including, the party said, his "pandering to the neo-conservative right wing."

But inside the town hall, McCain was greeted enthusiastically and admitted to nearly becoming emotional.

Joined by leaders of the campaigns of the former Republican presidential candidates, he said, "We are reuniting our party and we've got to re-energize it."

McCain had his own answer to a Hillary Clinton television ad questioning Barack Obama's preparedness for the office. He said, "I am ready to take the call at any hour of the day or night."

He reiterated his familiar promise to "get Osama bin Laden if I have to follow him to the gates of hell."

Accompanied by independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, McCain began his visit with a stop at the offices of the New Hampshire Union Leader, which editorially endorsed McCain for President.

McCain showed Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid a "lucky penny" that McQuaid had given him on the morning of the presidential primary, which McCain won to begin his push to the nomination.

"That's it," McCain said. "I've been carrying it around in my pocket. I swear to God, that is the penny."

In a meeting at the newspaper, McCain said he intends to be the first nominee to use the town hall format in a general election, "with them asking questions and making comments.

"We can preserve the town hall environment. I really believe that," he said. "If we don't, it's just going to be another campaign."

He said he realized that having less controlled events, he will face protesters and critics, but said, "I see no reason why you can't keep it up.

McCain also said that with eight months to go before the election, he wants to travel to as many states as possible.

"Why not be competitive in all of them?" he asked. "Maybe that's a little utopian, but at least I'd like to try it."

McCain said he does not count Clinton out of the Democratic presidential race, calling her "very resilient."

But he said later that although "it's none of my business," he does not believe that "a number of 'super-delegates' should be the people who decide the nominee."

He also expressed interest in a local race, asking, "How's (Sen. John) Sununu doing?"

McCain responded to news reports that several top advisers to his campaign lobbied for a European airplane maker that won a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract over Boeing.

He called it "one of the more bizarre stories," saying, "I stayed after that bad Boeing deal for two years, people went to jail and now I'm being attacked. It's mind-boggling."

He called free trade a personal "fundamental principle" and proposed community college-based retraining of displaced workers.

Speaking to reporters aboard his "Straight Talk Express" bus, McCain disagreed with the Republican National Committee's decision last year to punish New Hampshire, Michigan, Florida and South Carolina Republicans for holding primaries prior to the Feb. 5 date allowed by an RNC rule.

The RNC has cut those state's convention delegations in half, but McCain said, "I want them seated. They were driven by circumstances beyond their control, in that all the other states were moving their primaries earlier. I will do everything I can to seat those delegates."

McCain said that in the future he wants to preserve the early roles of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina and then work for a bipartisan plan for regional primaries.

"There ought to be a way to work this out," he said. "It's bizarre," he said, to have the nominee chosen in March with the convention not held until September.

McCain said former rival Mitt Romney "has a big role to play in the party" and "would be under consideration for a lot of different roles in a Republican administration."

Romney on Tuesday expressed interest in being McCain's running mate, but McCain said he could not characterize Romney's chances "because we haven't started the process, yet."

The Associated Press reported that following his town hall meeting, McCain made an impromptu stop at Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, where a group of armed services members were deploying to the Middle East for training before an upcoming deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Thank you for serving our country," he said. "You're the best of America."