ASHUA, N.H. - John McCain, senator and former prisoner of war, promised yesterday during his formal announcement of candidacy to run for president with dignity and to take the government back from the special interests and big-dollar donors who, he said, now exert undue influence on Congress and the White House.
McCain's announcement was no surprise to anyone who has seen him campaigning furiously this year in the Granite State. He took swipes at President Clinton, Congress and Texas Governor George W. Bush, the Republican front-runner. He underscored his independence, forged, he said, during 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
''It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am a candidate for president of the United States,'' he said from the bandstand in Greeley Park before about 500 friends and supporters.
In New Hampshire, which holds the first-in-the-nation primary, McCain has been making steady progress all year, with most polls showing him gathering support as an alternative to Bush. The campaign is organized in every county and in 75 percent of the towns so far. While McCain has targeted veterans for support, he also has developed a following among people who care about overhauling the campaign finance system, and he draws from both parties as well as Independents.
''He's got great potential,'' said Steve Duprey, a Republican Party official. ''This is a fabulous turnout, he's working the state hard.''
The campaign has long stressed McCain's life story, particularly the chapter in which the daring young Navy pilot was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 while on a bombing mission. McCain opened his announcement tour yesterday at his alma mater, the Naval Academy in Annapolis speaking to 4,000 midshipmen.
Later in Nashua, McCain, 63, told a crowd that he would protect Social Security, cut taxes, eliminate pork-barrel spending, create a nationwide school voucher test program, and improve students' access to the Internet.
McCain said money intended to go toward Social Security would only be used for Social Security in his administration. He said he would use 60 percent of the current surplus to save the retirement program during his first year in office.
McCain has long championed campaign finance legislation in Congress and yesterday he said he would give tax cuts to ''working men and women,'' not the special interests that invest in members of Congress. And he said he would refuse to sign any pork barrel spending bill that crosses his desk.
On education, McCain said he wants to send 90 percent of all federal education dollars to classrooms, rather than to government bureaucrats. He said all teachers should be paid based on merit, and they should be tested periodically for competence.
''There's no reason on earth a good teacher should be paid less than a bad senator,'' McCain said, in an appearance that his campaign filmed for use in future television ads.
Today in South Carolina, McCain plans to propose a three-year demonstration of school vouchers that would help students pay for private or parochial school. He would pay for the vouchers by canceling federal subsidies for ethanol, sugar, gas and oil producers.
McCain said Clinton failed the country by weakening its defenses, and that both parties in Congress wasted money on unneeded weapons systems and pork barrel projects while some enlisted personnel still live on food stamps.
And, for the first time, he was sharply critical of Bush, the leader of the Republican pack who has made light of his inexperience in foreign affairs. Until now, McCain has taken pains to avoid criticizing him. But McCain's advisers said the senator, more than any other candidate, has the experience in life that gives him the ability to make life and death decisions on sending troops abroad.
''If America is to lead, then America's leader must be prepared for that challenge,'' said McCain, the son and grandson of admirals.
''There comes a time when our nation's leader can no longer rely on briefing books and talking points, when the experts and the advisers have all weighed in, when the sum total of one's life becomes the foundation from which he or she makes the decisions that determine the future of our democracy,'' he said. ''For no matter how many others are involved in the decision, the president is a lonely man in a dark room when the casualty reports come in.''
