MANCHESTER, N.H. — McCain seems to be in good spirits – he jokes about the “balmy Arizona night” — it’s freezing outside – and when told he’s the first Republican to participate in these events, he said, “I guess you save the best for first.”

Before answering the first question, McCain has a long introduction, which includes ”I’m not the youngest. I’m older than Frankenstein -and – I’m older than dirt and more scarred than Frankenstein. Messed up that line.” The botched line didn’t get a laugh, but his reaction to the makeup line gets a good laugh.

There’s something to be said about McCain — while a crowd of college kids might not seem to be the ideal crowd, he manages to connect pretty well.

On a question about his plan on climate change, McCain makes the case that even if the threat isn’t real, the end result is a more energy-independent America, which is still beneficial and better off for the next generation. When discussing nuclear power, he acknowledges the challenge with dealing with the waste.

* See disclosure of MySpace’s covering the expenses of this New Hampshire trip here.

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A question from a home-schooled student about public education brings an answer from McCain that focuses on ”choice and competition.” He notes that his children went to Catholic school, even though he’s not Catholic. His answer – home schools, charter schools, . He talks about universities that compete for good students and points that if universities can compete for students, then K-12 schools should.

On Iraq: “For nearly four years, this conflict was mishandled. It was badly mishandled. It will go down as a black chapter. The strategy is now succeeding. I just came back from spending Thanksgiving with our troops. Al-Qaeda is not defeated. They’re on the run, but they’re not defeated… They know that if they don’t succeed there, they will follow us home. There will be chaos, and genocide. This success has to be greeted with optimism, but with a little caution.”

His answer gets significant applause, which I would not necessarily have bet on.

McCain’s response to the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, when he jumps in with more live-polled viewer response: “Some more of those statistics? I don’t want to see another pie chart.”

McCain gets a good question on why the dollar is weak. McCain says the reason is “we’ve spent, and we’ve spent, and we’ve spent, and we’ve mortgaged your future.”

Question on Darfur: “It was declared genocide by Secretary of State Colin Powell several years ago. At least 250,000 killed, millions more displaced.”

“Action in the United Nations Security Council is being blocked by China, because they have oil interests in the Sudan.” He pledges economic aid to African countries who are willing to send troops to stabilize the region. He says the African countries troops have not done well enough so far, but by bringing together like-minded countries in the region.

“I would use the bully pulpit. I would shame the Chinese for their failure to help us in the United Nations…”

Judging from Cillizza’s pie chart of the instant reaction, about 52 percent said McCain’s answer on Darfur made them “somewhat” more likely to support him, 25 percent much more likely to support him. It was 10 and 15 percent “somewhat less” and “much less likely” to support him.

Cillizza reads a question asking about Ron Paul getting more donations from members of the military than any other candidate. McCain shows a flash of anger in the Ron Paul answer, saying our troops “are not fighting for oil, they’re not fighting for empire, they’re not fighting illegally; they’re fighting to keep us safe!” He gets applause at the end.

They also applauded a reference to Saddam Hussein being dead, so maybe this isn’t the usual NO BLOOD FOR OIL white-guys-with-dreadlocks college crowd.

Hmm. The submitted video question is essentially a retread of the first one, “what’s your plan on global warming.”

McCain takes a moment to whack away at the carbon tax, saying it’s a gas tax that would hit the poorest Americans hardest. He hits the Kyoto treaty for not including India and China, says that once they were included, he would negotiate for entry. He notes that India and China will soon be the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

His “I agree” scores are growing steadily in the instant online poll MySpace is conducting…

Asked if he would consider Hillary Clinton as a running mate: “I respect Senator Clinton. I know her, and I appreciate her work. We just have different philosophies; she is a liberal Democrat, I am a conservative Republican.”

He says he would “absolutely” consider Democrats in high-ranking cabinet offices.

I don’t know if John McCain is going to walk about with a lot of new supporters, but 46 minutes in, it looks good. He just told a variation of the guard story – I found one version of it here:

As a scared American prisoner of war in Vietnam, I was tied in torture ropes by my tormentors and left alone in an empty room to suffer through the night. Later in the evening, a guard I had never spoken to entered the room and silently loosened the ropes to relieve my suffering. Just before morning, that same guard came back and re-tightened the ropes before his less humanitarian comrades returned. He never said a word to me. Some months later on a Christmas morning, as I stood alone in the prison courtyard, that same guard walked up to me and stood next to me for a few moments. Then with his sandal, the guard drew a cross in the dirt. We stood wordlessly there for a minute or two, venerating the cross, until the guard rubbed it out and walked away.

You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Not a lot of candidates can tell a story like that.

Also working for McCain, he’s picking on one of the moderators, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, mercilessly. Cillizza is enjoying playing the foil; by sitting a bit above McCain, half-hidden by computer monitors, he seems a bit like the banker on Deal or No Deal.