McCain says U.S. must rethink how to solve problems

JACKSONVILLE, Fla (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, accused by foes of seeking a third term for President George W. Bush, will say on Thursday that Washington needs to rethink its approach to a host of problems.

McCain, as part of a weeklong "Service to America" tour that looks at his past and gives some idea of how he would govern if elected president in November, is to speak on Thursday in Jacksonville, which was a home away from home for him while he was deployed overseas for the U.S. Navy.

Without mentioning the Bush administration, he will say in a speech that the United States should prepare, "far better than we have before," to respond quickly to a September 11-style attack.

And Arizona Sen. McCain will say that the U.S. government should be better able to handle a natural calamity, in what sounds like a reference to the botched government response to Hurricane Katrina.

According to speech excerpts, he will say that "when Americans confront a catastrophe, either natural or man-made, their government, across jurisdictions, should be organized and ready to deliver bottled drinking water to dehydrated babies and rescue the aged and infirm trapped in a hospital with no electricity."

While Democrats say electing McCain would represent a "third Bush term," McCain has made clear he has several differences with Bush on issues like torture and global warming.

This speech is no repudiation of Bush, but rather a lengthy description of the problems the next president will have to handle.

But it does appear to raise some questions about how policy has been handled by both Bush and the U.S. Congress in recent years.

"To defend ourselves," he says, in a reference to the threat from Islamic extremists, "we must do everything better and smarter than we did before."

"We must rethink, renew and rebuild the structure and mission of our military; the capabilities of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies; the purposes of our alliances, the reach and scope of our diplomacy" against the threat, he says.

McCain, who clinched the Republican presidential nomination in part by wooing independent voters, lays out a role for bipartisanship in tackling the threat of Islamic extremism, deficit government spending, improving health care, reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and opening up new markets for U.S. exports.

"We can leave these difficult problems to our unlucky successors, after they've grown worse, and harder to fix. Or we can bring all parties to the table, and hammer out principled solutions to the challenges of our time," he says.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)