Mrs. McCain is having a knee operation, so McCain is in Phoenix. Hope she mends quickly.

Today’s questions were a bit all over the map, but with an opening comments on Pakistan, the Republic of Georgia and Iraq, questions about Iran and the size of the military, it seems that if there’s any theme to the campaign at this point, it’s the preferred approaches to a dangerous world beyond America’s borders.

The biggest surprise to me? McCain repeated an anecdote about the Ramadi, Iraq 5K race. (At that link you can see the Ugandans performed well. Yup, this so-called “unilateral” operation in Iraq has Ugandan help.)

Rough transcription below the fold…

#more#

On Pakistan: Like all Americans, I hope to see democracy in Pakistan, and that Musharraf will take the proper steps. But if we’ve learned anything else in that part of the world, there are a lot of complications and different aspects to this situation… The Pakistani intelligence service we’ve had some differences with them. There’s been Islamic influence going back to driving the Russians out of Afghanistan. He notes that the military was taking casualties in the tribal regions, creating rumblings in the Pakistani military.He notes corruption was a serious problem before Musharraf, and it has not been under his regime. “I’m not excusing anything Musharraf was doing…

The last time something like this happened, we sent Helms to Iran to tell the Shah to step down. We see the laws of unintended consequences there.

I would send somebody that Musharraf respects. I’m glad Negroponte is going over. I want somebody over there who can give me a good assessment, and who has influence on the players over there. There’s a lot at stake in a nuclear-powered country. I would not be offering a lot of public condemnations of Musharraf at this time.”

On the Republic of Georgia: “I’m a little disappointed in my friend the President of Georgia, who has overreacted to some protests over there. I’ll be speaking to him about that soon…. The theme is, we’ve learned that elections don’t necessarily mean democracy, but the rule of law does.”

On progress in Iraq: “I was in South Carolina, and was told by a soldier, ‘Did you know they had a 5k race in Ramadi two weeks ago?’ A year ago it was a free-fire zone. It was Fort Apache. I’m not saying everything is perfect. But some of the improvements in the situation have not been covered as much as I would like.”

Jonathan Rick: Should federal law overrule the will of the people on medical marijuana?

McCain: Medical marijuana is not something that is the will of the people. It is the will of some people who feel very strongly. I’ve seen no convincing evidence to me that medical marijuana, that the relief of pain and suffering cannot be accomplished by prescriptions of doctors. You’d have to show me evidence that it truly is the will of a majority, not the strong opinion of a motivated minority.

As for the will of the people – for example, the will of the people is that withdraw from Iraq very very soon, and I don’t agree with that.

Q: [Rep.] Jeff Flake joining you on the trail New Hampshire?

McCain: Jeff and I don’t agree on every issue, but I admire his honesty and integrity I’m proud to have him on our team…

The [Democrats] pay for their health care expansion by raising the tax on cigarettes a dollar a pack. We’re going to pay for a children’s health care plan by doing everything we can to get Americans to smoke? What’s that about? And then it just drops off the budgetary books. You know, last year, they used customs fees [to cover an increase in spending, I think] 12 times. It’s going to get very expensive to bring goods into America. Of course, none of them passed…

Captain Ed: Adm. Fallon said there’s no buildup to bomb Iran, and that the rhetoric needs to be dialed back.

McCain: In all due respect to Admiral Fallon, I’m sure we have contingency plans. We have contingency plans for every scenario everywhere in the world, and if we don’t, somebody’s not doing their duty. I’m confident we have plans.I think the President is correct when he says we cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. I am very encouraged by President Sarkozy’s efforts to lead on this issue… I hope the President was able to persuade Angela Merkel [of Germany] when he had her to the ranch on the issue of sanctions. The Iranian economy is shaky, they have a lousy government.

Matt Lewis: In your web site game, you mention a third party bid by pro-lifers if Rudy Giuliani is the nominee. Are you predicting a third party bid?

McCain: I’ll admit it’s a little juvenile. I said, ‘ah, go ahead, I think somebody will enjoy it.’ I’m not predicting that. It’s just something fun for the web site.

On the woman who used the B-word: You would think from watching at least one of the networks, you would think I was guilty of this behavior, when in fact I said that I respect Senator Clinton. I have an excellent relationship with Senator Clinton. But there are fundamental differences between myself and Senator Clinton.Now Hillary Clinton wants to secure funding for the preservation of the Seneca knitting mill and a jazz education program. I’m running to put the business-as-usual crowd out of business.

Michael Goldfarb: Thoughts on size of military, after Thompson’s call for a million man army?

McCain: I’ve been saying for years we needed to expand the size of the military. I can throw numbers at you – two divisions of the army, one division of the Marines. But we need to discuss what kind of a military we have. We need special forces, we need people trained in interrogation. It’s not just how much money you spending. We need to stop wasteful pork-barrel spending associated with the Defense Appropriations bill.We need an intensive reevaluation of where we’re spending our tax dollars. Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex was accurate in some sense.

Leon Wolf: The judges who have upheld McCain-Feingold have traditionally been the liberals or the moderates. Would you appoint a justice who you felt could be the deciding vote if you felt he disagreed with you on that?

McCain: Of course. That’s why I appointed Roberts and Alito. I felt they probably had a different view.I’m still criticized for the Gang of 14. I don’t know a single Republican senator who would vote today for the nuclear option. That’s a terrible precedent for a Democratic Senate.There are people who think the Gang of 14 was wrong, I am certainly not your candidate.