McCain opts against Clinton attack before teens

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain was prepared on Wednesday for a blistering criticism of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Iraq but decided not to deliver it to an audience of teenagers.

A spokesman, Brian Rogers, said McCain stood by his denouncing the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination for voting to authorize the war and then opposing it. But after talks with school leaders, the Arizona senator decided his remarks were not appropriate for the audience.

"It wasn't the content, but the venue," Rogers said.

Instead, McCain steered clear of politics in remarks to Camden Military Academy in Camden, South Carolina, which includes students in grades 7-12, who are typically no more than 17 or 18 years old.

In his undelivered, prepared remarks, McCain said Clinton "wants to have it both ways when it comes to foreign policy."

"On the one hand, the New York senator voted for the Iraq war," he said, referring to her 2002 Senate vote in favor of a resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq.

"One the other hand, she now opposes it -- sort of. On the one hand, she wants a firm deadline for retreat, but on the other hand, she says we cannot abandon the nation to Iran's designs," McCain said.

He then accused Clinton of "triangulation," a political strategy her husband, Bill Clinton, sometimes practiced as president by taking positions between the left and right.

"Senator Clinton, this is not the '90s," McCain said. "This is the post-September 11 world. The commander-in-chief does not enjoy the luxury to conduct our national security by means of triangulation."

Rogers said: "Obviously he stands by the remarks. He's not backing away from his criticism of Hillary on Iraq."

McCain, in a tight battle to become his party's nominee in the November, 2008 election, was campaigning in South Carolina which is one of the early primary voting states.

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/