REENVILLE, S.C. - Senator John McCain was not in New Hampshire yesterday, a fact made quite clear by more than just sunshine and no snow.
Minutes into the question-and-answer period of a town hall meeting at the Greenville County Library - the first stop on a two-day trip through the state before he heads north and hunkers down for the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary - talk turned to abortion, religion, and the military and stayed on those topics for a long while.
McCain has often said that South Carolina, which holds its GOP primary Feb. 19, is vital to a successful run for the Republican nomination for president. Without a good showing in that state, he has said, he will have enormous difficulty going much further.
The state is more conservative than New Hampshire, set as it is firmly in the Bible Belt. And many Republicans in South Carolina are strongly opposed to abortion. It is also more densely packed with veterans and has at least 10 large military bases. ''They've practically turned South Carolina into an armed camp,'' McCain quipped.
On the current state of the military, McCain can talk for hours, often launching into diatribes against the waste and disarray of today's armed forces. And his comments were well-received yesterday.
He has often seemed more uncomfortable discussing his views on abortion. But yesterday, McCain, who is antiabortion, was far more ready with his opinions on the subject.
The senator began the meeting, attended by several hundred people, with a speech on Internet pornography and the need to filter content on computers in public libraries. But his audience seemed more concerned with other topics.
He was asked questions on abortion from both directions: One inquisitor asked how he could be antiabortion and still vote to support fetal-tissue research. Another asked how he could support less government involvement in people's lives, yet want to interfere with a woman's right to choose to have an abortion.
McCain said he thought Roe v. Wade should be overturned and said he would support exceptions to a ban on abortion in cases of incest, rape, and when the mother's life is in danger.
He supports fetal-tissue research, he said, because it has helped make progress against Parkinson's disease. McCain ended with his assertion that abortion rights and antiabortion activists should cooperate on issues of foster care and adoption.
He had made his decision on abortion, he said, ''after a lot of study, consultation, and a lot of prayer.''
On the question of whether his wish to overturn the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade goes against the GOP's desire for smaller government, McCain said the federal government was right to involve itself, since its money had been used to help fund abortions.
''All of us would like not to have the issue of abortion in the public arena, but taxpayers' dollars ... are being used to take a human life,'' he said. ''That's why we can't get it out of the public arena.''
''Obviously,'' he added, ''I'd like to have less intensity on this issue.''
About a quarter of Republican primary voters in South Carolina will decide on a candidate based on his position on abortion, said US Representative Mark Sanford, also a state cochairman.
